The Bengal government has taken up an initiative to impart quality management training required for the export of leather products to workers of the Bantala Leather Complex in Calcutta.

The initiative has been made in association with the European Union, which will shoulder 80 per cent of the cost of the entire initiative.

Inaugurating the initiative, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Bantala Leather Complex would attract investment worth Rs 80,000 crore.

“There will be an employment generation of nearly 5 lakh people in the Bantala Leather Complex... Investors from Chennai and Lucknow have shown interest in investing in the complex,” she said.

“Major exporting countries of our leather goods are European countries. So, if workers get to know the mechanism to maintain quality for exporting products..it would be better for the sector,” said an official.

For conducting the training programme, modern machinery has been imported from Italy and installed at the leather complex.

Sources also said technologies to be used for production of export quality leather products would be green friendly.

Mamata also flagged off the setting up of a 200MW solar power plant near Digha in East Midnapore. The German state-owned bank KfW would shoulder Rs 1,000 crore of the Rs 1,200 crore project. The state government would spend remaining Rs 200 crore.

The chief minister said that the project was approved during a business conclave in Digha in December and thanked all that the project started as per schedule.