Leather complex at Bantala: State expects Rs 10K cr investment, 2.5L jobs

Kolkata: Asia’s largest leather complex — Calcutta Leather Complex at Bantala will have another 187 tanneries along with 139 footwear units entailing an investment of Rs 10,000 crore and generating employment for 2.5 lakh people.

The leather complex, popularly known as ‘Karmadiganta’, already has fully operational 500 tanneries and leather goods manufacturing units on 1150 acres of land employing 5 lakh people. The investment in Karmadiganta has already been to the tune of Rs 25000 crore.

“Employment generation has always been a major focus of the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. With the new units operational, the total employment from Karmadiganta alone will be 7.5 lakh. With more investments, exports will naturally increase,” said Alapan Bandyopadhyay, chief adviser to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On Thursday, Banerjee chaired a review meeting at the Bantala Leather Complex at Nabanna in the presence of chief secretary B P Gopalika and senior officials of the state secretariat. Regional Chairman Council for Leather Exports Ramesh Juneja and representatives from the leather goods park attended the meeting at Nabanna.The meeting saw detailed discussions regarding the infrastructure of the leather complex.The state government has already spent Rs 1900 crore on infrastructure development that includes solid and liquid waste management, drinking water facilities, road and sewerage. Such work is still ongoing and will be completed soon. According to Bandyopadhyay, a big water project with a capacity of 28 million gallons is coming up with an investment of Rs 475 crore in ‘Karmadiganta’. People working in ‘Karmadiganta’ and others who live in and around the area will benefit from this water project.

“The articles manufactured in ‘Karmadiganta’ have extremely high demand. Hence, we are coming up with a mall dealing with the leather and cottage industry in front of the Alipore Jail Museum. Fifty per cent of the space inside the mall will have space reserved for things manufactured at Calcutta Leather Complex. The rest will have space for Banglar Saree and other MSME products,” Bandyopadhyay said.