Janbazar shoe-makers to get common facility centre at Udayan Industrial Estate, thanks to Bengal govt

Kolkata: The state government has allotted land in Udayan Industrial Estate to set up the common facility centre for shoe-makers from Janbazar.

The shoe-makers have been in the business at Janbazar since the time of Rani Rashmoni. Now, the initiative taken by the Mamata Banerjee government is going to help them increase production, besides making shoes based on "new designs" and as per the demand in the market.

The shoe making industry at Janbazar in the central part of the city, once had a wide market with no competitors at least in the eastern parts of the country. Now, with the passage of time and no initiatives at the government level till the Mamata Banerjee government came in, Janbazar had started losing its hold on the country's shoe making industry, despite having "incomparable" skill.

With the change of guard in the state in 2011, one after the other sectors of the existing prospective Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises were identified and the shoe making industry at Janbazar is one of the same.

Taking a major initiative, the state MSME department has chalked out a plan of action to extend infrastructure and training support to the people involved in the shoe making industry at Janbazar.

As a part of developing infrastructure for the industry, the necessity of setting up a common facility centre

was also felt. There will be a unit at the common facility centre, where finishing work of shoes of "new designs" can be done.

An official of the state MSME department said: "A machine costs around Rs 15 lakh and it is not possible for a shoe-maker from Janbazar to go for such an investment. So, with the setting up of such machines, all the shoe-makers from the area can use the same to give finishing touches to their products. At the same time, there will also be storage space for both raw materials and finished goods in the common facility centre."

He said that the common facility centre is coming up on a plot allotted for the project in Udayan Industrial Estate.

There are around 120 shoe manufacturing units at Janbazar and more than 1,200 direct and around 4,000 indirectly involved people are in them for their livelihood.

The shoe-makers from the area were also taken to different places across the country, including Guwahati, Shillong and Kanpur to gain knowledge on the new methods and designs to make shoes. During the visit they also interacted with the traders there.

It may be mentioned that Janbazar was once famous for pump shoes, grecian shoes and choti-juto (covered sandals with lace at the back). Ramakrishna Paramahansha used choti-juto made by the shoe-makers of Janbazar.