‘State open to proposals to set up toy parks’

Kolkata: State is open to proposals for setting up toy parks. “If a toy park is set up and some proposal from Bharat Chamber of Commerce comes up, Shashi Panja will take it up with the government,” Mayor Firhad Hakim said during the inaugural session of the International Toy Exhibition in Netaji In-door Stadium on Saturday.

During the session, the chairman of Toy Sub-Committee of the Bharat Chamber of Commerce and director of AAL Toys Akshay Binjrajka proposed to have a toy industrial hub in the industrial belt of Howrah, considering its close proximity to port and highways.

“State is pro towards Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and large-scale industry, and any such proposals are always welcomed, and we can sit for discussion,” state Industry, Commerce and Enterprise minister Shashi Panja said during the

inaugural session.

Binjrajka later informed that discussions with WBIDC on establishing a toy cluster at a land near Bali Station will start after this week. They will have a common meeting with stakeholders who want to take land in that area. They will need one acre of land for each industry holder and if they make a clus-ter of 12-15 people then they will need 15-20 acre land.

Binjrajka informed that they have been offered land near Asansol as well for the toy cluster. However, according to him, Howrah has an ecosystem for the toy industry.

“Our first preference will be Howrah,” he said.

Apart from this, around 40 leading toy players in the industry are looking to set up units in Taratala.

They had requested that they wanted a minimum of 20 years lease but were offered a five years lease. Discussions with KMDA are going on and next week they will have a final meeting wherein rates and lease agreement will be finalised.

“It is very nice, well-organised and well-maintained. The only point of contention is cost and term. If all issues are settled, there will be an investment of more than Rs 75 crore. This is the initial investment. We will start the business in 1,80,000 square feet. Then the variable investment will be anything de-pending on the size of the business,” Binjrajka said.

The International Toy Exhibition had 129 stalls, out of which 40 per cent were from Bengal and rest were from other parts of India as well as neighbouring countries.

This is the second year of the exhibi-tion. Last year, they had 120 stalls.