Six tea estates which have been shut for months will reopen soon, state labour minister Becharam Manna said on Tuesday.

Manna, who was at Madarihat in Alipurduar district — located around 50km from here — held a meeting with officials of different departments at the local tourist lodge. He was apprised of the works like the Cha Sundari (free housing scheme for tea workers), linking of Aadhaar card of tea workers with their provident fund accounts and identification of unused land in plantations which can be used for tourism.

“In north Bengal, 14 of 282 tea estates are shut. We are making all efforts to facilitate their reopening. Six tea estates will reopen soon,” said Manna.

The gardens include Madhi and Bundapani of Alipurduar, Surendranagar of Jalpaiguri and three in the hills, said sources in the state labour department.

As of now, around 8,500 workers of these gardens receive Rs 1,500 each monthly from the state under FAWLOI (Financial Assistance to Workers of Locked Out Industries) scheme.

At the meeting, Manna also emphasised the need to provide drinking water supply to residents of some of the gardens who are still dependant on natural sources.

“It has been found out that there are 37 gardens where drinking water facility is not available now. The state PHE department has already taken the initiative to develop drinking water projects for each of these gardens and has prepared detailed project reports. They will soon start the work on these projects,” the minister said.

He also said officials of the land and land reforms departments of the tea growing districts of Bengal — Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and North Dinajpur — had been asked to start identifying unused land on tea estates where tourism facilities could be developed.

The state government had in 2019 increased ceiling of the land that can be used for tourism purposes in tea gardens from 5 per cent to 15 per cent.

Manna will attend another meeting at the same venue on Wednesday to discuss the minimum wage issue in the tea sector.

In 2015, the state government had formed an advisory committee to recommend the minimum wage rate to the state but no decision has been made yet.

“Representatives of tea planters’ associations, trade unions and officials of the labour department will be present at the meeting. We are expecting some positive development tomorrow,” said a source in the labour department.