The Kolkata Leather Complex is an industrial complex at Karaidanga, Bantala near East Kolkata,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is located 20 km from the central business district of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

and has an area of about 4.5 square kilometres.

The complex

The complex is intended to serve as a central leather-tanning business for Kolkata. Bantala has approximately 500 tanneries and the Kolkata one performs 22-25% of all the tanning in India. The state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

is responsible for about 55% of India's leather exports. As of 2009, about 200 tanneries were relocated to the Kolkata Leather Complex. The project includes a police station and a fire station; in 2017 the police station was brought under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata police. The facility also houses the Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, which is affiliated with

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, West Bengal (MAKAUT, WB), formerly known as West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT), is a public technical university located in Haringhata, West Bengal, India. Established in 2001 by the ...

, Kolkata. A 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 Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemi ...

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 The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

ordered that all tanning activities in Kolkata be moved outside the city limits. As of 2013, the complex was still not fully operational, and many illegal tanneries continued to operate outside the complex. In February 2023, a data came out about new and existing investments in this industrial complex. Kolkata Leather Complex to get 10000

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

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

Buildings and structures in Kolkata Indian leather industry {{India-struct-stub