The entrance to the Bantala leather complex: Few takers. A Telegraph picture

The promoter of the Calcutta Leather Complex, in Bantala, has sought chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?s intervention to ensure reluctant tannery-owners relocate to the new address.

The 1,100-acre complex, built by ML Dalmiya and Company under the supervision of the state commerce and industry department and the pollution control board, has been ready since 2004.

Calcutta High Court had ordered that all tanneries and allied units in the city must shift to the complex.

But most units are reluctant to move in and are carrying on operations illegally in the Tiljala-Tangra-Topsia belt.

While inaugurating the estate in July, the chief minister, had appealed to tannery-owners to start operations there.

?Starting from basic infrastructure ? like roads, lights, drinking water, raw water, drainage ? to electricity, telephone and common effluent treatment plant, everything is ready in the complex. Yet, the tannery-owners are reluctant to shift base,? said Baishali Sengupta, director of ML Dalmiya and Company.

?We have got in touch with the government and sought its intervention to ensure that errant tannery-owners fall in line. If the tanneries and allied units are not relocated, the purpose of setting up the complex will be defeated. We?ll discuss the issue with the chief minister soon,? Sengupta added.

A source said the 327-acre tannery corner in the estate has space for over 600 units. But only 100 ? mostly new ? have started operations and another 50 will do so soon.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said he had discussed the matter with commerce and industries department officials and asked them to issue an ?ultimatum? to the errant tannery-owners to relocate their units. ?We will wait a few days before we demolish their existing units and impound machines,? Deb asserted.

A commerce and industry department source said the tannery-owners, especially those in the small-scale sector, do not want to shift base as they are now running a business without paying fees.

?They have to pay rent and other charges in Bantala. We have held several meetings with the owners and urged them to shift their units. Electricity, water and telephone lines, too, have been snapped in their existing units,? disclosed industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen.