The new HRBC building that will house the state secretariat from October till the time the Writers’ Buildings is restored. The HRBC building was originally built to house garment tradersPicturebyPicture by (top) Gopal Senapatiand (below) Rashbehari Das

Had the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) been able to complete the 14-storey building at Kshetra Banerjee Lane before 2011, it would now have hosted the biggest garment and technology park in West Bengal. The 14-storey building, spread over 2,46,000 sq ft, was built at a cost of Rs 75 crore. It was supposed to accommodate garment traders and their workshops along with a design and research centre, banks, insurance office, canteen and cafeteria, recreation centre, community centre, day care for children of women workers among other things. The project was scheduled for completion by the first half of 2011, funded entirely by the then Left Front government. But due to delay in construction, the garment park could not be inaugurated by the former state government.

Meanwhile, the present chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, decided to shift the state secretariat temporarily out of Writers’ Buildings to what was supposed to be the garment park to make way for renovation of the heritage structure. So while the garment traders lost out, the clerks of Writers’ stood to gain. The former, who were eager to move in to the garment park, will now have to wait for the re-shifting of the state secretariat to its old site.

The garment and technology park was the brainchild of the then chairman of HRBC and MP from Howrah, Swadesh Chakraborty. “The decision to build a garment park was taken in 2008 keeping in mind the growing garment industry in Howrah. The garment traders were also keen on the park as they would have access to some common facilities like bank, insurance etc. Besides, the park was built at a strategic point like Kshetra Banerjee Lane that is well connected,” said Chakraborty.

He said that the availability of skilled workers in Bankra, Salap, Domjur, Panchla, Uluberia, Chamrail, Jagadishpur and many other parts of Howrah would help the industry grow fast. There are at least 13 privately owned garment markets in Howrah’s Nityadhan Mukherjee Road, popularly known as Mangalar Haat. These markets house hundreds of small stalls from which traders run their business. However, with growth of the industry, new traders can’t find a foothold in those markets. Besides, most of the traders want their manufacturing units along with their shops under a single roof. The garment markets at Nityadhan Mukherjee Road have no such facilities.

On top of this, the old markets were virtual tinder boxes with no fire safety measures to speak of. “The garment markets at Nityadhan Mukherjee Road have no fire fighting equipment worth mentioning. Fire can break out any moment and gut the markets completely,” said Pulak Sharma, station officer, Howrah Fire and Emergency Service. In 1984, in a devastating fire, Daw Mangalar Haat was completely gutted and garments worth Rs 2 crore were lost.

The garment and technology park was originally a Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) project implemented by the HRBC. For long, the garment traders of Howrah and the neighbouring districts kept requesting the HMC to build a modern facility with ATMs, insurance offices, restaurants, hotels, parking lots and above all proper fire safety measures. “Keeping in mind the needs of the garment traders who come from outside the state, a few guest rooms had also been built inside the garment park where they could put up for a couple of nights. Now most of the garment traders from other states and districts have to put up in hotels near Howrah station,” said former HRBC chairman.

He said that the demand for space in the garment park was so high that it was decided that another 12-storey building would be built to accommodate all the traders. According to him, many from the hotel industry were keen to set up hotels in the adjoining areas of Kshetra Banerjee Road catering to traders from outside Bengal, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and other countries.

“We were ready to pay for a space in the garment park in Howrah and move in there. But we got no response from the present HRBC authorities when we appealed to them. And now with the government shifting there, we seem to stand very slim chance of ever shifting there,” said Kunjee Kabra, president, West Bengal Garment Manufacturers’ and Dealers’ Association.