Tannery units in state to create 6,000 more jobs

Kolkata: The leading players in the leather business from Kanpur and Chennai are investing over Rs 1,000 crore for setting up tannery units at Bantala Leather Complex in South 24 Parganas, said state industry and finance minister Amit Mitra on Saturday. The units that will be set up on 2 lakh square metre land will generate direct employment for around 6,000 people.

As many as 20 tannery owners from Kanpur and Chennai met Mr Mitra at the state secretariat Nabanna, and were asked to submit a proposal in this regard at the earliest. “They have been very impressed with the facilities and the experience of other tannery units that are operational at Bantala. We had a threadbare discussion for two hours. We will be providing them with 25 acres of land and they will initially develop 25 tanneries,” the industry minister told reporters at Nabanna.

The state government is also developing a solid waste management system on 50 acres of land, a leather designing institute, a leather training institute and a cooperative society to bring the 146 small tanners under one umbrella. “The investment will be further diversified into shoes and leather gloves,” Mr Mitra added.

At present, of the 1,100 acre of land in Bantala, only 312 acre are in use. The 385 tanneries acquire 202 acres, and in the rest 110 acre there are shoe-manufacturing units. “We have also undertaken beautification of Bantala. We have already invested `4 crore and planted 76,000 trees. The place very soon will become an interesting tourist spot,” an industry department official said . Mr Mitra added that the tannery water went directly into the Bay of Bengal, and not into the Ganga.