Atri Bhattacharya, chief executive officer of WBIIDC, with BNCCI president Nayantara Palchoudhuri in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb. 17: The Bengal government will hand over the management and maintenance of 13 growth centres in the state to the industry.

It has informed the units in those growth centres about its decision.

At present, West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) runs these growth centres.

However, neither the corporation nor industry is happy with each other.

“Industry is not happy with our service. We are not happy with their payments. So we have decided to part amicably,” Atri Bhattacharya, chief executive officer of WBIIDC, said.

On an average, the corporation suffers annual losses of around Rs 70-80 lakh. “Sometimes it even crosses a crore,” Bhattacharya said on the sidelines of an interactive session organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The units located in the growth centres are advised to form registered societies that would run the show. The WBIIDC presence will be limited to a few officers.

“We are ready to help them with all the inputs like designing,” he added.

The decision to come out of these loss-making growth centres is in tune with the Left Front government’s strategy to restructure non-viable operations. “Our motto is now profit through quality,” he said.

Of the 13 growth centres, 10 run on losses. The corporation is planning to set up three more centres ? Falakata, Bolpur and Malda. Bhattacharya said two of the growth centres expressed interest in taking over the management and maintenance of their respective property.

If the arrangement works out, the corporation will continue to be the land lord and lease out land to units.

However, it is learnt that units in most of the growth centres are not too keen to take over the reins.

“They want to be under government patronage. They do not want to take up the hassle,” industry observers said.