Country India District South 24 Parganas PIN 743 502 | State West Bengal Time zone IST (UTC+5:30) Area 4.5 km² | |
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Calcutta leather complex 051216
Calcutta Leather Complex is an industrial complex at Bantala in east Kolkata, India. It is located 14 km from the central business district of Kolkata and has an area of about 4.5 square kilometres.
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The complex is intended to serve as a central leather-tanning complex for Kolkata. There are about 500 tanneries in Kolkata and they perform 22-25% of all the tanning in India. The state of West Bengal is responsible for about 55% of India's leather exports. As of 2009, about 200 tanneries had relocated to the Calcutta Leather Complex.
The project includes a police station, fire station, and a College of Leather Technology. A 130 acres (53 ha) portion was designated as an IT park.
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.
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.