Kolkata’s Chinatown, the only one of its kind in India, will be turned into a tourist destination if tourism minister Manabendra Mukherjee has his way.
Mukherjee, who in his earlier stint as information technology minister had brought many IT majors to Kolkata’s IT hub of Salt Lake Sector V, told the legislative Assembly on Tuesday that the government has decided to declare Chinatown as a tourist spot.
He did not detail what this would mean in terms of facilities.
“We have decided to declare Chinatown as a tourist spot, and will appoint a reputed international consultancy firm to do a survey and give us a plan of action,” the minister told Newsline later.
Originally, Chinatown was a concentration of Chinese in central Kolkata’s Tirreti Bazar and Bowbazar area, who had begun coming down to Kolkata in the 18 th and 19 th centuries when the city was the capital of the British empire in India.
Later, a large chunk moved to the eastern fringe of Tangra, where the Chinese set up tanneries and made Kolkata the largest leather centre.
The 100-acre Tangra belt also became home to a host of Chinese eateries, and is a much-sought after destination despite the muddy roads, open drains and poor lighting that are evidence of the government’s neglect.
Mukherjee clarified that by Chinatown he means Tangra, not the original location near Bowbazar, where the Chinese had set up businesses in carpentry and shoemaking when they first came to Kolkata.
But, even as the government decided to turn Tangra into a tourist destination, the polluting tanneries are already serving their death sentence, having been banished by the courts to a location farther east, at Bantala, where the state government has promoted what it says is India’s largest integrated leather complex.
Many of the Chinese tanners are reluctant to move to the new location, mainly because they cannot afford the steep rates and also because their numbers are also dwindling.
At the same time, Kolkata’s Chinese population has dwindled to a few thousand, from over 20,000 at its peak. Most of the younger people have emigrated to Canada or Australia.
The minister said Chinatown would now be marketed as part of the Destination West Bengal campaign.
“We need big private investment since it is not possible for the government to fund the entire tourism campaign,” Mukherjee said. The consultant for Chinatown is yet to be chosen.
“We have appointed Ernst & Young to do the survey for the state’s tourism,” he said.
The consultant, he said, would draw up a strategy to attract investment and also select the destinations to be marketed.
“We will draw up a draft tourism policy then,” Mukherjee said.