Job boost: Shoe production cluster to come up soon

Kolkata: In a move to ensure more employment generation in the shoe production sector, the Bengal government is now setting up Janbazar Leather Shoe Making Cluster.

The cluster is coming up at Udayan Industrial Estate at Pagladanga Road in Kolkata. The move has been taken following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's direction to augment the infrastructure to give a boost to the leather and shoe making industry in the state.

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 the state government's initiative to set up the cluster is mulled to bring back the lost glory of the show manufacturing industry at Janbazar.

The West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation is the nodal authority in terms of developing the show making cluster and Janbazar has been identified to develop the same as a large section of entrepreneurs from the area is involved in the shoe-making business.

There are more than 150 shoe manufacturing units at Janbazar. The shoe-makers from the area have gained skill in making shoes of world class design and quality following a training programme organised by the state government at different places across the country including Guwahati, Shilong and Kanpur.

More than 5,000 people from the Janbazar area are dependable on the shoe making industry to earn their livelihood. "Setting up of the cluster would help in generating more thousands of job opportunities mainly for the youths from the local area as majority of them already have the basic knowledge on the trade," said a senior state government officer.

It needs a mention that Janbazar was once famous for pump shoes, grecian shoes and choti-juto (covered sandals with lace at its back).

The shoe-makers are into the business at Janbazar since the time of Rani Rashmoni. Even Ramakrishna Paramahangsha used choti-juto and it was then made by shoe-makers of Janbazar only.

The state government earlier had developed a common facility centre with expensive machineries that ranges upto Rs 15 lakh, for shoe-makers from Janbazar.

The common facility centre facilitates infrastructure to undertake finishing work of shoes of "new designs" was set up and it is not possible for a shoe-maker from Janbazar to go for such an investment.