Kharagpur, March 19: When the government has made it a habit to harp on the need to better infrastructure to industrialise Bengal, seven manufacturing units in a complex have had to down shutters following the collapse of the water supply network.

The deep tube-well operated by the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation is inoperative since September, when the ground water level receded, but authorities here are yet to provide any alternative.

In December, Kanak Roy, the small industries development corporation official in charge of the estate, said: “We have decided to install another deep tube-well and work will begin in 10 days.” It has not started yet.

Out of the seven closed units in the Small-scale Industrial Estate, five manufacture chemicals and need 3,000-5,000 litres of water daily to keep their boilers cool. The two others are agro-based industries. When the factory owners signed contracts agreeing to invest in the complex, the corporation had assured uninterrupted water supply.

“Although my factory is shut in the absence of water, I have to pay salary to my workers. If the situation continues to be thus, we will have to look for alternatives,” said Debabrata Sarkar, the owner of Integrated Chemical Industries, which makes chemicals used in tanneries.

The industrial estate, set up three decades ago, houses 15 units.

Sarkar said the government has time and again said it wants to develop Kharagpur as an industry hub. “Maybe the chief minister wants that. But we don’t know whether he is aware of our problem.”

A tyre-resoling factory has not closed down but has had to scale down production. “If we can resole 143 tyres a month, we can run on a no-profit-no-loss basis. But we are now unable to resole over 100 tyres. We are buying water worth Rs 10,000 every day,” said K.K. Misra, a manager of Agarwal Tyre Retarding Company.

The owner of a detergent factory, Aparesh Ghosh, is buying 4,000 litres of water every day. “I am shelling out Rs 75,000 every month to keep the unit running,” he said.

The problem has been taken up with the small industries corporation chairman, Moinul Hasan. “But we are yet to receive his response,” said the president of the local entrepreneurs’ association, A.C. Ghosh. “The estate will have to be closed down if this continues,” he added.

Hasan could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.