Leather park to come up near Kanpur

Kanpur Unnao Leather Development Company (KLC) — a consortium of Kanpur-based industrialists, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative Limited — is developing a leather park in the Unnao industrial cluster near here. The proposed park, to be spread over 200 acre, is aimed at helping the leather industry in the economically-backward region of Uttar Pradesh.

“The company will be investing around Rs 100 crore in developing the land in Unnao. It will provide effluent treatment plants, constant power and skilled manpower to the tannery owners who are willing to shift base to the new location,” IL&FS regional manager Jayant Prakash told Business Standard.

The board of directors of KLC, comprising three members from IL&FS and three local entrepreneurs, is scheduled to chalk out an acceptable land acquisition policy shortly. Around 40 per cent of the capital will be provided by DIPP, while the rest will be raised by the local entrepreneurs. IL&FS will provide the engineering, consultancy and project implementation expertise to KLC.

KLC will adopt a ‘project financing’ model to provide these facilities to the leather industry of the region, which has begun to show signs of decline in recent times. Currently, the industry is dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in identifiable clusters in the Jajmau area.

The proposed park is expected to provide employment to over 12,000 people, and housing to over 120 tannery plants. Over 200 local industrialists have already evinced interest in relocating to the new park. The tanneries will use Italian technology and some Italian companies like Unichem are planning to set up new manufacturing plants here.

IL&FS consultant Imran said the proposed technology would help reduce pollution as it operates through recycling of waste water, completely reusing 70 per cent of it, while the remaining 30 per cent will escape into surroundings in the form of water vapour.

KLC has already set up a 10-Mw power plant, which will be expanded according to the demand. Besides, it will set up training institutes in Kanpur and Unnao for creating skilled manpower for the leather tanneries.

According to KLC chairman Mukhtar-ul-Amin, sufficient land available is not available in the present leather cluster of Jajmau in Kanpur and hence the move to relocate the cluster to Unnao.

Leather workers in Kanpur had been facing lack of adequate and quality infrastructure to comply with the pollution control norms set by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) following which more than 50 tanning units had been ordered to close down in the last two years.