Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision on Tuesday to provide fresh leases to new investors torun closed and sick tea estates in north Bengal’s brewbelt has been hailed by several tea planters and tradeunion leaders.

The Alipurduar BJP MP, Manoj Tigga, also welcomed the decision.

On Tuesday, Mamata, addressing journalists at Nabanna, had said the state provided new leases to companies to run six tea estates in north Bengal.

The gardens granted new leases for three years are Huntapara, Dhumchipara, Tulshipara and Birpara in Alipurduar, Nagaisureee in Jalpaiguri and Rangli-Rangliot in Darjeeling.

“It is a major development for us and we thank the state government for its move. We have been running four closed tea estates and now we will get the lease in our name. Once the lease papers reach us, we can approach banks and financial institutions for loans and carry out development works at the gardens. It will also help us to run the gardens more smoothly,” said Surojit Bakshi, the director of the Merico Group of Industries, one of the investors.

The Merico Group will run the four gardens of Alipurduar.

The Merico Group has already been running some closed gardens in Alipurduar. So far, they had to run the gardens out of the sale proceeds of teas sold through auctions as the lease documents were not in their names.

Last year, the state came up with a standard operating procedure (SOP) to take over and hand over the closed and sick tea estates. This was done to facilitate the reopening and running of the closed and sick gardens where workers were the most affected lot.

“After the SOP was readied, this is the first time that the state has granted fresh leases to run closed or sick gardens. It was an effective move and will boost the north Bengal tea industry while helping all the stakeholders,” said Ritabrata Banerjee, the state president of INTTUC, the Trinamool workers’ front.

Mamata, while speaking on the issue, said the state would monitor the running of such gardens by the new companies which have been provided with a lease for three years. “If the state is satisfied with the operations, the lease will be granted to such companies for a period of 30 years,” she had said.

Tigga, the Alipurduar MP, said he had earlier flagged the issue that leases should be granted to such companies to facilitate running of sick and closed gardens.

“It is good that the state has finally come up with the decision,” said Tigga.

Nakul Sonar, the chairman of the Trinamool Cha Bagan Sramik Union, said: “The granting of new leases to companies which are running such gardens will definitely help in ensuring that tea workers receive their dues regularly as the management would be able to explore new options to arrange funds for working capital and the upgrade of the garden.”