February 23, 2019
Calcutta Leather Complex combining investments with addressing green concerns
The Calcutta Leather Complex (CLC) in Bantala, a shining star of the Bangla Government, is scripting a success story, and a comprehensive one at that – it is attracting investments worth Rs 5,000 crore and at the same time addressing environmental concerns.
This is being achieved by augmenting the capacity of a common effluent treatment plant in order to treat waste water chemically, mechanically and biologically before releasing it in canals, and planting thousands of trees.
Going by a rough government estimate, the biggest leather complex in Asia is set to generate up to three lakh jobs in the next five years.
In December last year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said the State has received around 1,000 applications from investors willing to set up business at the leather complex. Currently, 400 tanneries employ close to 1.5 lakh people.
On February 15 this year, a note from the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises and Textiles Department to the CEO of CLC had confirmed that the State had decided to shift all IT/ ITeS and telecom firms from Bantala to Bengal Silicon Valley in New Town. The shift was decided so that the entire area of CLC could be used for leather industry, given the huge demand from tanneries across the country.
Three big-ticket investors from UP, Tamil Nadu and Bangla were allotted token land at the CLC during the Bengal Global Business Summit two weeks ago.
The leather complex has also started a pilot project in collaboration with the Central Leather Research Institute to generate biogas from solid waste.
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