Odisha gears up to set up wood industry cluster

The state government today promised all necessary support for establishment of an industry cluster dealing with imported wood at Paradip.

At a workshop chaired by Chief Secretary B K Patnaik, entrepreneurs from across the country suggested for establishment of the first phase of the cluster on 500 acres of land at Paradip.

The industries to come up in the cluster will import wood from outside and process it to make various items to meet the requirement of people without affecting the natural forests of Odisha.

It has been proposed to import wood from Malayasia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Africa, Europe, the US and Australia. Multinational timber processing companies such as Domogeo of USA, Lifespace of Australia, and Century Ply of India along with many local entrepreneurs have expressed their interest to set up primary and secondary downstream industries in the cluster.

International furniture supply chain Ikea has expressed its interest to source raw material from the cluster, said Ramu Ramakrishnan, an expert of wood industries and the brain behind Paradip cluster.

To start with, it has been proposed to set up offices of five timber traders, five large saw mills, 20 small saw mills, 10 plywood mills, 10 large processing factories, 50 medium processing factories and 50 small processing units.

The primary units will convert imported round timbers for veneering purposes. The secondary units will use these for production of edge glued boards and tables, chairs, office furniture, house furniture, wooden furniture, doors and door frames, flooring (solid wood and plywood flooring) and moulded veneer furniture.

Patnaik said, there is a huge demand for wood based products in Odisha and in neighboring states. The state government is ready to provide land and other infrastructural facilities for the purpose as soon as the anchor investors come forward to drive the project.

He advised the Forest & Environment Department and MSME Department to prepare comprehensive proposal and move Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for development of the cluster. He emphasised that potential entrepreneurs should be directly involved in the process of formulation of the proposal so that the proposals submitted would match the field level requirement of the industries.

It has been estimated that 145 units will start working in the cluster out of which 25 will be large units. The cluster will provide direct employment to 12,000 people with an estimated investment of Rs 600 crore, said Sarat Sahu, president of Odisha Industries Forum.