A special purpose vehicle (SPV) called the Leather & Footwear Park of Kolkata (LFPK) was floated nearly six months back to develop a footwear park project and it submitted a detailed project report to the director of industries in February.
The proposal has already been forwarded to the commerce & industries ministry and a reply is awaited within this week, claimed B D Bhaiya, president of the SPV.
Council for Leather Exports (CLE) was acting as facilitator for the project and claimed 50 lines of production employing 300 people per line could be set up following changes made in the latest Foreign Trade Policy that reportedly stressed on developing labour-intensive industries, said A K Chatterjee, chairman (eastern region), CLE.
The project cost was estimated to be around Rs 300 crore.
The SPV hoped to get funds from the central government under the infrastructure development fund for the sector, permitting funding of upto 40 per cent of the project cost or a maximum of Rs 40 crore.
However, LFPK or CLE could not claim the central funds if a developer like MLD built infrastructure like roads, light and water, Chatterjee clarified.
If the park came up within the CLC, the SPV would have to pay charges to MLD.
A tripartite agreement between the state government, SPV and MLD was what men like Bhaiya would like.
Otherwise, LFPK would build a park outside the CLC, Bhaiya warned.
Land had reportedly been identified on the Basanti highway outside the CLC.
In case of delay in getting land inside CLC, LFPK would seek a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the director of industries to purchase land for the project independently, Bhaiya claimed.
MLD had started work on developing a 25 acre footwear park inside the CLC.
Khadims had taken up around 5 acres inside the park apart from five other units in the first phase, said MLD sources.
MLD had not got any proposal for a footwear park either from LFPK or the state government, said insiders.
LFPK claimed it was in talks with other regional players like Sree Leathers to back its version of the park, which would focus on exports.
Over 100 applications had been received and 35 applicants had already submitted initial deposit, claimed Bhaiya.
