Local entrepreneur Rizwan Ashraf, who is the Director and Co-founder of Homera Tanning Industries Pvt. Ltd., is investing Rs. 5,880 crore to develop a mega leather cluster in Kanpur’s Ramaipur.
He aims to build a leather cluster to rival those in Italy.
“We will develop a mega leather cluster in Ramaipur, which is in South Kanpur, with an investment of Rs. 5,880 crore. The cluster would have 354 units — including 225 tanneries and the remaining units will be for makers of shoes, saddlery, belts and garments. This would be the biggest in North India,” Rizwan added.
However, to his regret, the current cluster of tanneries in Jajmau, where the head office of the company is located, offers little scope and is stagnating.
“Any industry needs growth to survive and compete but the capacity of existing treatment plants cannot be increased. Also, land is not available for the new units,” he said.
When the Union Government proposed the setting up of seven mega leather clusters in 2012 and made budgetary provisions for the same, entrepreneurs like Rizwan saw a silver lining.
He said that the decision caught their attention and they had a discussion with promoters and directors. He also said that the setting up of such leather clusters would become a reality soon since they had worked hard to make it happen.
He further stated that the proposed leather clusters would have state-of-the-art treatment plants, each for salted water, chrome recovery and fleshing, and will be built along the lines of the tanneries in Italy. Those setting up their units would be given space within a building complex rather than being provided a piece of land so that they would only require machines to start production. He also estimated the cluster to provide over two lakh jobs.