Bantala Leather Complex: Major portion to be operational by 2025-26 FY beginning
Kolkata: The state government has set the ball rolling for making a major portion of Asia’s largest leather complex ‘Calcutta Leather Complex’ at Sector VI in Bantala operational by the beginning of the 2025-26 financial year.
Out of a total 148 tanneries expected to come up, 71 got the license to operate and the rest are under process. “The land demarcation exercise for all the tanneries will be held from September 2 to 15 in presence of all the stakeholders. We are hopeful that 71 tanneries which got consent to operate will begin their infrastructural work soon. It is expected that by the beginning of the next fiscal year they will be operational,” said a Nabanna official.
From September 15-30, the demarcation of the respective land of the allottees of the footwear park will be taken up. About 138 footwear units will form the park which will come up on 62 acres of land. A hospital and a bus stand at the project site will also be set up for which the space was identified.
The total investment in the project will be Rs 10,000 crore, generating employment for 2.5 lakh people. The leather complex, popularly known as ‘Karmadiganta’, already has 500 tanneries and leather goods manufacturing units fully operational on 1150 acres of land employing 5 lakh people. The investment in Karmadiganta was to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore. “Employment generation has always been a major focus of the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. With the new units operational, the total employment from Karmadiganta alone will be 7.5 lakh. With more investments, exports will naturally increase,” the official added.
Banerjee, on July 18, chaired a review meeting on Bantala at Nabanna. Following the meeting, the chief secretary chaired another high-level meeting on Bantala in August first week.
The state plans to come up with a mall dealing with leather and cottage industry in front of Alipore Jail Museum.
About 50 per cent of the space inside the mall will be reserved for items manufactured at Calcutta Leather Complex which have high demand. The rest will have space for Banglar Saree and other
MSME products. The state government has spent Rs 1,900 crore for infrastructure development, including solid and liquid waste management, drinking water facilities, road and sewerage. Such work is still going on and will be completed soon.
