State govt sanctions 4 green firecracker manufacturing clusters
Kolkata: The state government sanctioned four green cracker manufacturing clusters across the state on the basis of West Bengal Green Firecracker Manufacturing, Storage and Selling Scheme (WBGFMSS) with the provision of fiscal incentive of upto 90 per cent of the project cost of the green firework cluster in three installments.
Nabanna sources said the clusters that got approval will come up at Champahati in South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Murshidabad. Four other applications that are presently pending are one each from South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and Siliguri.
In November 2023, when the state MSME & Textiles department came up with WBGFMSS with the objective of providing a safe and environment friendly eco system for manufacturing, storage and selling of green firecrackers and sparklers in the state, thereby generating safe and sustainable employment for stable livelihood. Lakhs of people in the state are dependent on the firecracker manufacturing industry for livelihood.
The delegation from Pradesh Atasbazi Byabsayee Samiti (PABS) which identified an 8.5 acre land at Nandarampur mouza under Maheshtala Police Station area in South 24-Parganas is also expected to get permission for such a cluster soon. “We held a meeting at the SDO level on Monday and we were asked to widen the road leading to the site of the cluster.
A joint inspection will be held on June 28,” said Sukdev Naskar of PABS.
The fiscal incentive will have an installment of 20, 30 and 50 per cent on reimbursement basis. The first installment will be released after completion of land filling, boundary wall and internal road (if any). The second will be released after 80 per cent of the land is allotted, power connection completed and drainage system in place while the final one will be released after all the units become operational on the land.
According to the scheme, once the land is identified, the state will create the basic infrastructure, including land filling and transfer of the developed land to the SPV of the interested green firework clusters on a 30 years lease with applicable land premium, rent etc as may be approved by the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in May 2023 formed a committee led by the chief secretary for identifying land parcels for developing green cracker clusters. The move followed after blasts in illegal cracker manufacturing units at Egra, East Midnapore and Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas that led to 14 deaths.
