Kolkata Leather Complex

The Kolkata Leather Complex is an industrial complex at Karaidanga, Bantala near East Kolkata, India.^[2] It is located 20 km from the central business district of Kolkata and has an area of about 4.5 square kilometres.

Kolkata Leather Complex
Planned Industrial Complex
Calcutta Leather Complex, Gate No-1
Nickname:  Bantala
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	South 24 Parganas^[1]
Area
• Total	4.5 km^2 (1.7 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	238 Tanneries
Languages
• Official	Bengali, Hindi
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	743 502

The complex

The complex is intended to serve as a central leather-tanning business for Kolkata.^[3] Bantala has approximately 500 tanneries^[4] and the Kolkata one performs 22-25% of all the tanning in India.^[5] The state of West Bengal is responsible for about 55% of India's leather exports. As of 2009, about 200 tanneries were relocated to the Kolkata Leather Complex.^[6]

The project includes a police station and a fire station; in 2017 the police station was brought under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata police.^[7] The facility also houses the Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, which is affiliated with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Kolkata.^[8] A 130 acres (53 ha) portion was designated as an IT park.^[9]

Pumping stations carry the effluent from the tanneries to a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP). Problems in completing the common effluent treatment plant have caused serious difficulties, with toxic waste polluting the construction activities of some companies.^[10]

The complex was conceived in the early 1990s as "an integrated complex housing all activities relating to the leather industry in a modern and environment-friendly manner". The need for the project became evident when the Supreme Court of India ordered that all tanning activities in Kolkata be moved outside the city limits.^[9]

As of 2013, the complex was still not fully operational, and many illegal tanneries continued to operate outside the complex.^[11]

In February 2023, a data came out about new and existing investments in this industrial complex. Kolkata Leather Complex to get 10000 crore new investment which currently has an investment worth of 30000 crore. The proposed expansion would make it South Asia's Largest Integrated Leather Complex.

References

1. "Kolkata Leather Complex".
2. "About – Calcutta Leather Complex Tanners Association". Retrieved 10 September 2020.
3. "CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute". www.clri.org. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
4. Acharya, Namrata (18 July 2019). "Bengal allots 70 acres to 187 new tanneries in Calcutta Leather Complex". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
5. "Our Lust for Leather Comes at a High Price in the Developing World". Undark Magazine. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
6. "Industry Specific Review: Leather Industry" (PDF). West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. 2009–2010. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
7. "Leather complex to come under Kolkata police". The Indian Express. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
8. "Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, Kolkata". engineering.careers360.com. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
9. (PDF). Government of West Bengal. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
10. Madhupama, Das (3 October 2008). "Leather complex turns threat to environment". The Indian Express. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
11. Roy, Utpah Singha; et al. (7 March 2013). "Changes in physicochemical characteristics of wastewater carrying canals after relocation of Calcutta tannery agglomerates within the East Calcutta Wetland ecosystem (a Ramsar site)". International Journal of Environmental Studies. 70 (2): 203–221. doi:10.1080/00207233.2013.774810.