Bahadurgarh-Kharkhoda area to have footwear park

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), July 29

The state government would develop a footwear park over 700 acres between Bahadurgarh and Kharkhoda (Sonepat) in order to give a boost to the industry. The footwear manufacturers would be allotted plots in the park before December 31.

Industry and Commerce Minister Vipul Goel said this while interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of foundation laying ceremony and upgrade of infrastructural facility worth Rs 33 crore at the Modern Industrial Estate (MIE) in Bahadurgarh town on Saturday evening. He also assured the industrialists of setting up of fire station in the Bahdurgarh Footwear Park.

Sources say the Footwear Park Association, Bahadurgarh, has been raising the demand of another footwear park in the NCR since a long time as many footwear manufacturers from Delhi are waiting to get industrial plots to run their units here. The Bahadurgarh Footwear Park that was development over 615 acres in 2007 at the cost of Rs 60 crores has 368 plots, the sources maintain.

“Over 400 footwear industrialists from Narela and Bawana Industrial Area (Delhi), who could not get the plot in Bahadurgarh will be able to get plots in newly announced footwear park. The move will not only promote the footwear industry but also generate new job opportunities for local people,” said Subhash Jagga, secretary of the Footwear Park Association, Bahadurgarh.

Earlier, Goel said a footwear cluster at the cost of Rs 25 crore would be developed in Bahadurgarh Footwear Park where 10,000 youths would be imparted skill development training every year so that they could get employment as per their qualification. The BJP government had framed a new industry policy to encourage the industries across the state, he added.

In reply to a question about rising crime in the state, the minister said the government knew how to deal with law violators. He said special steps had been taken to curb criminal activities and the government had also succeeded in bringing down the crime rate in the state, he claimed.