Feb. 26: The Bengal Assembly has passed a bill to declare Bantala a township in an attempt to clean up the pollution caused by tanneries in the area and to attract investments.
Amit Mitra, finance, commerce and industries minister, said the government had received many complaints about excessive pollution in Bantala. "The Assembly has passed a bill to bring Bantala under the township act so that the government can directly work for the development and improvement of the entire area," he said.
Mitra was speaking at the inauguration of the 22nd India International Leather Fair (IILF) 2017 at the Milan Mela complex today. It was earlier known as the International Leather Goods Fair.
The state's leather industry, which provides employment to 300,000 people, is pegged at Rs 13,000 crore, of which goods worth Rs 7,000 crore are exported.
The government has already taken various steps to develop the Calcutta Leather Complex in Bantala, Mitra said. "We have built a Technical Training and Service Centre at an investment of Rs 14 crore. It is ready for operations. In fact, we have installed Italian machinery worth $2 million there."
The government has pumped in Rs 3 crore for intensive plantation over 50 hectares, he said. Also, major and arterial roads are being repaired.
The Assembly has passed a bill to bring Bantala under the township act so that the government can directly work for the development and improvement of the entire area
Amit Mitra
finance, commerce and industries minister
"We have given 50 acres for a landfill site... a tannery solid waste co-digestion-cum-bio gas generation unit is being piloted by the Central Leather Research Institute. A new industrial cooperative representing 300 micro leather units has been formed for settlement in the complex as micro, small and medium enterprises cluster."
The minister said the underground water availability for extraction had been assessed at 35 million litres a day. The Indian Leather Products Association has taken the initiative to set up a common sewerage treatment plant for leather goods manufacturing units, he said.
The leather complex is spread across 1,100 acres; 970 acres are available for leather activity, of which 202 acres have been dedicated to tanneries. As of now, 325 wet tanneries and 39 leather units operate out of this zone.
The complex has four common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) with a total capacity of 20 million litres a day. It has seven pumping stations, a common chrome recovery plant, illuminated internal roads, a footwear design and development institute, four power substations and a facility to provide drinking water.
Mitra said the government had proposed to create and develop more infrastructure under the mega leather cluster of Indian Leather Development Programme. "We want to add two new CETPs, each with a capacity of five million litres a day, while renovating the existing ones. Overhauling and extending the effluent transport system and cleaning and refurbishing internal canals is on the cards."
A sanitary landfill site for hazardous waste and a footwear park on a public-private-partnership model on 100 acres is on the agenda as well.
Common facility centres for the leather goods sector as well as for providing services and facilities to micro tanneries have been proposed. "We will complete all these projects within the next three years," Mitra told Metro on the sidelines of the event.
