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West Bengal
Jute
Jute textile manufacturing is the
most prominent industry in West Bengal due to availability
of raw jute in the state. At present there are 59 jute
Mills in West Bengal. Main jute products are Hessian,
sacking, jute bags and other items produced by jute.
Most of the jute Mills in West Bengal are located on
the two banks of river Hooghly near Kolkata. West Bengal
is the leader and pioneer in the country for the manufacturing
of Jute Textiles. The development of Jute Industry is
due to availability of raw jute, transportation and
cheap labour available in the State.
India is the world's largest producer
of raw jute. It alone produces World's 50% of raw jute
and 40% of finished jute goods. It provides employment
of 40 million farmers and 0.2 million factory workers.
Indian
jute industry at a glance :
| Number of jute mills in
India |
73 |
| Number of jute
mills in West Bengal |
59 |
| Number of looms |
39733 |
| Number of spindles |
507960 |
Paper
West Bengal is the second largest
state in India after Maharashtra in paper production.
The total installation capacity of paper mills in West
Bengal is approximately 222600 tonnes per year. The
development of paper industry is due to the availability
of raw material, waste paper, supply of water by Hooghly
River, cheap transport facility, fuel and big consumption
market.
Tea
West Bengal is the second largest
growing state in India. West Bengal contributes 21 percent
of the total production of tea in India. Darjeeling
and Jalpaiguri are two northern districts of West Bengal
were most of the tea gardens are located. There are
three Tea growing zones:
Darjeeling tea is the finest tea
in the world. There are 343 tea gardens in West Bengal
covering 103950 hectares planted area. Tea industry
plays an important role in the economy of West Bengal.
It generates employment in several ways as production,
processing, distribution, packaging etc. Tea is also
an important source of income through exports. Kolkata
port is the biggest tea-handling port in India as well
as Kolkata is the biggest tea auction market in India.
Many new small tea gardens have been set-up in Coochbehar,
North Dinajpur etc.
Under a pilot project efforts are
being made to cultivate tea plantation in non traditional
areas.
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