The Centre had finalised the blueprint for the revival of Khardah and Kinnison jute mills in North 24-Parganas, under National Jute Manufactures Corporation Limited (NJMC), through private participation.
The revival package has been approved by the Board for Industrial Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), and bids from private parties would be invited soon, he said.
The government will retain 51 per cent stake in the mills.
Also, over the last few years the government has disbursed Rs 900 crore on voluntary retirement scheme of about 16,000 workers in the NJMC mills.
For about 300 remaining staff, mostly in the grade-I category, the government was working on an alternative pay package, he said. They might also be absorbed in the revived mills in due course of time, the minister added.
The capacity of the two jute mills was close to 180 tons per day, with upto 7,000 people working there. In 2007, the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) had recommended that NJMC close the National, Alexandra and Union jute mills, and revive the Khardah and Kinnison jute mills in West Bengal and RBHM in Bihar.
NJMC is the only public sector undertaking engaged in jute goods manufacture and owned six jute mills - five in West Bengal and one in Bihar.
All the jute mills are closed at present. Earlier, BRPSE has suggested the revival of Kinnison and Khardah Mills in the public sector, and private partnerships for the Katihar Mill. The mills produced traditional jute goods like hessian, sacking, jute twine and jute carpet backing cloth (CBC).
At the time of nationalisation, the NJMC mills produced around 1.10 lakh ton of jute goods per annum, which rose to 1.33 lakh ton in 1985-86. However, there was a continuous decline in production thereafter.
By 2004-05, the six units of NJMC ceased operations due to disconnection of power supply for non-payment of bills caused by working capital crisis.
