Kolkata: The Bengal government has launched a structured plan to revive the New Central Jute Mill (NCJM) at Budge Budge, one of the state’s oldest jute manufacturing units, as part of a wider effort to rejuvenate the jute sector and safeguard employment in the region.
According to sources, the Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction (PE&IR) department has floated a Request for Proposal (RFP) to appoint a transaction advisor to design and oversee a revival scheme for NCJM, which is presently under liquidation.
The move follows a Calcutta High Court order dated March 12, 2024, granting the state liberty to take necessary steps toward revival in accordance with law. The court’s direction came in response to a petition concerning the company’s liquidation, in which the state had expressed its willingness to prepare a revival plan through a fair and transparent process.
It was learnt from state government officials that the NCJM, incorporated in 1915 and operating two mills, Albion and Lothian, at Budge Budge, was declared sick in 1987. After the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) ordered its closure in 1989, the state government intervened to keep it operational, investing nearly Rs 89 crore through the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and the West Bengal Industrial Development Finance Corporation (WBIDFC).
The company’s shareholding, as per its last audited balance sheet (2012-13), includes the NCJM Workers’ Cooperative Society (52.52 per cent), the Government of West Bengal (41.17 per cent) and various financial institutions.
An official said that the transaction advisor will compile the mill’s operational history, study the jute and allied sectors, analyse market dynamics, consult creditors and stakeholders and develop a detailed revival scheme for approval by a group of ministers. The process will culminate in the selection of a suitable operator or financier to implement the plan.
Officials said the initiative aims not only to restore production but also to protect the livelihoods of workers and revive industrial activity in the Budge Budge jute belt, reinforcing Bengal’s traditional jute economy. Once the advisor’s report is approved, the state expects the revival roadmap to become a model for restructuring other defunct industrial units in the sector.