Bengal To Set Up Jewellery Export Park

The West Bengal government is planning to set up a Jewellery Export Park at Bidhanagar, Calcutta.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said at the annual general meeting of the Bengal Naitional Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BNCCI): "The proposed Calcutta Jewellery Export Park will accommodate more than 100 units (over 10 lakh sq ft) and will employ directly 20,000 artisans of West Bengal. Exports from the state will go up at least two-three times from the present Rs 330 crore in just five years."

The proposed jewellery park has been christened "Mani Kanchan". The chief minister urged members of the Chamber to co-operate in the project by contacting all interested parties to join the government in the proposed venture.

 

The state government is also trying to set up an integrated hosiery complex. "With improved industrial relations and the setting up of the proposed integrated hosiery complex, we hope this industry will regain its original position" said Bhattacharya. There are about 4000 units including 2291 hosiery units, in the state, mostly in the small scale sector.

The Department of Food Processing Industry and Horticulture is commencing a Rs 25-crore project for setting up an export oriented floriculture complex at Mungpoo in Darjeeling. "We have transferred 31.5 acres of land from our Cinchona plantation for this project, which will have collection centres, cold storages, refrigerated transport facilities and other required catalytic support. Experts from Holland and Israel have identified suitable export-grade flowers and have also advised us on the finer aspect of tissue culture and other relevant technologies," said Bhattacharya.

Referring to the IT industry in the state, the chief minister said, "Two more prestigious mega units will be coming to the state soon." To further strengthen public interface, an applications service provider is being set up by Webel.

Former chief minister, Jyoti Basu, addressing the gathering, said, "We could not give adequate boost to large industry earlier because of discriminatory and unhelpuful attitude of the Centre including licensing policy and the freight equalisation scheme."

In his address, B N Kumar said, "It is time for us to make a self-assessment as to why we could not move forward like few other states in the country. We need serious attention for improving work-culture in every sphere of life for a big leap in the path of development."