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Bengal to build India's first toy park

Krittivas Mukherjee in Calcutta

West Bengal is to establish a toy park, said to be the first in India, to capitalise on a growing market for toys and to counter cheap Chinese imports that are flooding the market.

The venture is on the lines of the software technology parks that have been set up in various parts of the country to promote the growth of information technology firms.

To be built at a cost of Rs 160 million on a 2.28-acre site, the toy park will accommodate 60 domestic and foreign toy firms. The venture promises to create at least 4,000 jobs.

"The first phase, to be completed by March 2003, will house 20-30 companies in an area of about 60,000 sq. ft. The second phase will also cover an identical amount of space," D P Patra, managing director of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, which is promoting the venture, said.

Already, two German firms have expressed interest in setting up their units in the toy park, Patra said. WBIDC chairman Somnath Chatterjee is scheduled to meet the South Korean ambassador to India in Delhi soon to discuss ways to involve that country's entrepreneurs in the venture, he said.

The venture will be managed by WBIDC Toy Park Limited, which is to be set up for the purpose. An international consultant, I-Win, is assisting WBIDC in the venture. Plans are afoot to involve various chambers of commerce in the project.

Besides infrastructure, the toy park would also provide facilities for marketing and exporting products that are manufactured there.

"It could also take care of the interests of small scale units which have so far been deprived of a fair price for their products," Patra said.

According to the All India Toy Manufacturers Association, the toy market in India stood at Rs 3.42 billion in 1998-99, a whopping jump from a meagre Rs 3.9 million in 1990-91. The industry is projected to grow to Rs 9.35 billion by 2004-5, AITMA says.

But, despite this exciting scenario, the Indian toy industry has failed to evolve in an organised manner, AITMA says, adding that some 1,250 small scale and cottage units account for the majority of the turnover.

Hopefully, the toy park will change all this.

Patra said that apart from the 4,000 direct jobs that the park would generate, it would also provide indirect employment avenues for another 6,000 persons.

Some 1,500 skilled professionals will find work in the first phase and about 2,500 in the second phase, he said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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