Madhu tea estate in Kalchini block of Alipurduar district, closed for around seven years, is likely to reopen soon as an entrepreneur has expressed interest in acquiring and running it.

Shyam Sundar Goyal, who owns another tea estate in the Dooars, visited the garden on Sunday to take stock of the situation, much to the elation of workers jobless for years now.

Located around 3km away from Jalpaiguri town, the garden was shut by its erstwhile management on September 23, 2014, following disagreement with workers over bonus.

Since then, repeated initiatives taken by the state to facilitate the reopening of the garden proved unsuccessful. The state land and land reforms department cancelled the garden’s lease four years ago. All 951 permanent workers of the garden became jobless. Around 200 of them have since migrated elsewhere for jobs, local sources said.

Last week, state labour minister Becharam Manna, on a visit to north Bengal asserted that the state government taken up the onus to reopen six closed tea estates.

“A tender was floated by the state government where investors were invited to take over Madhu tea estate. On December 3, the bids were opened and Shyam Sundar Goyal, who also owns the Nimati tea estate, was selected” said a source in the administration.

Goyal who on Sunday met with workers and trade union leaders of the garden, said: “I have received information about the selection via tender and am waiting for the formal written communication and will then fix a day when the garden will reopen”.