Bengal to utilise unused properties for textile industry

The West Bengal government is looking at buying unused properties of the several sick units lying locked under the purview of the industrial reconstruction board, in a bid to create employment opportunities and promote textile industries.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Paridhan-an integrated textile and garment park developed by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation--chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said, “Our aim is to promote the textile industry, which has lots of export opportunities and generate more employment, for which we need land. There are hundreds of such closed units, several jute mills and other units along the BT road and the Ganges, which have been declared sick and lie closed, under the jurisdiction of the Board for Industrial Reconstruction. These units have lots of land in possession lying unused, the state government wants to set up new investment avenues there. We are in talks with the concerned department to find out how the unused land can be utilised.”

The textile park inaugurated today was expected to generate more than direct employment for more than 8,000 people and indirect for 24,000 by 2010.

The land originally belonged to the National Potteries Limited, which was declared a sick unit and had to be shifted due to environmental concerns.

WBIDC, the state nodal development agency purchased the total 8.78 acre of land at a reserve price from the industrial reconstruction board, it informed.

State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen, said, “Right from the day the state government took possession of this land in 1995, the employees of National Potteries insisted that some new industry be set up by the state government, we have done it through this garment park, which will help the local youth in getting job. Special focus will be given to women, for whom a working women's hostel has been also created apart from other state-of-the-art facilities.”

“There are hundreds of such sick units that lie closed and unused, under the National Jute Mills or other organisations in and around Barrackpore which can be developed if given. We have asked the central government to hand over the land to us, we are ready to buy at the reserve price, but the central government has informed us in writing that this was not possible and land can be given only through the auction route only.We want central ministries who own the land to build industry there or hand it over to the state government,” said the chief minister.

The park spread over 8.78 acres, located in the South Canal Road, will be developed in two phases at a total cost of Rs 77.28 crore. In phase I, a total built-up space of Rs 4,03,600 square has been developed at an investment of Rs 35.99 crore.

Phase I of the project was complete and work towards phase II was well on schedule and would be completed by 2010, said Sabyasachi Sen, state principal secretary for industry.

“Textile and garment industry is one of our focus area since we have the required manpower and skill. We would like to promote it in our state through such parks. We plan to set up eight such textile parks within the next five years to meet our target of creating 10 lakh jobs. We are in talks with the central textile ministry to realise this” Manabendra Mukherjee, minister for tourism and micro and small scale industries.

Currently, all the modules in Phase I have been leased out, of the 85 modules leased. Around 24 have even started operations, employing over 1,100 people.

When fully developed, the park will have a total built-up space of 6,75,000 square feet comprising five standard design factories for setting up manufacturing units and a common facilities building.