Ramesh puts a garland around the statue of Santal leader Birsa Munda in Satali on Wednesday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, May 2: The Union minister of state for commerce and industries, Jairam Ramesh, told tea garden workers in the Dooars on May Day that Kanthalguri and Ramjhora were expected to reopen in three or four months.

Both gardens have been closed since 2002 and numerous attempts to reopen them have failed. However, Ramesh sounded bullish about the prospects, buoyed by the fact that another closed estate, Bharnobari, restarted operations earlier this week.

“During my last visit here, I had promised the workers of Bharnobari that I would be at the garden the day it reopened. However, because the model code of conduct has been enforced in Bengal I could not be there when Bharnobari started functioning again. Today, I have come here to keep my word,” Ramesh told an audience of nearly 1,000 workers, including many from Bharnobari, at the Birsa Munda Ground at Kalchini’s Satali yesterday.

The minister said of the 14 closed gardens in the region, two have reopened and the Jalpaiguri district magistrate has cancelled the lease of the others — the first step to bringing in a new owner.

“For Kanthalguri, a new buyer has come forward and it will reopen within a short time ,” said Ramesh. “For Ramjhora, we have got two buyers and talks are on with the state government. It is expected that within three-four months both will open.”

Ramesh said the Centre had issued letters to the original buyers, but none of them had replied.

To another question, the minister said: “Not a single kg of Bengal tea is exported, except Darjeeling Tea, although the state produces around 250 million kg of tea each year. We plan to export tea to Egypt, Iran and Pakistan. On May 19, I am going to Egypt to talk to the government there so that we can export good quantity of Bengal tea there.”

Industry stakeholders, however, said a large amount of CTC tea from north Bengal is exported. “India sends around 150-200 million kg of CTC tea to West Asia, Egypt and Russia, of which north Bengal and Assam combine to contribute 50 per cent,” said N.K. Basu, the Bengal convener of the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations.