When you talk about Uttar Pradesh’s perfume, you talk about Kannauj. For 100 years now, this ‘Perfume city of India’ has been faithfully producing some of the country’s finest fragrances in the form of attar and other perfumes. But, the sector is still unorganized and so the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) is trying to provide institutionalized production facilities to the perfume makers by constructing a perfume park in the city.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Additional CEO, UPSIDA, Prem Prakash Meena, IAS, shared details about the upcoming Kannauj Perfume Park.
PERFUME PARK
The perfume park in Kannauj is envisaged as a world class aromatic perfume centre or attar park.
Mr. Meena said, “It is an unorganized sector, so we are trying to provide them with an organized and institutionalized way of setting their production facilities. This include hand holding them when it comes to their marketing, research, or linkages not only in India but across the globe. This is being done so that we can scale up the local capacity and develop it into a much bigger thing.”
AMENITIES PROVIDED
It will basically be developed as an industrial area which is spread across 27 acres and have about 34 different plots of different sizes, from 500 sq metres to 1700 sq metres. The corporation is at a very advanced stage of procuring additional 30 acres of land right adjacent to it as there was a demand from the people for more land stating that 34 plots may not be sufficient. A process that’s likely to be completed in a week or two.
“There will be high standard amenities such as a robust road network, etc. We also intent to set up a common facility centre that will house a small museum, a lab testing facility, a training school, conference hall and other basic amenities which can be utilized by the people who set up their shops in it,” Mr. Meena said.
PROMOTING FLORAL AGRICULTURE
He also said that they found out that the raw material of making perfume is still an issue as it is generally imported from some other place. Hence, the corporation is planning to promote floriculture across Kannauj and surrounding areas so that the entire agriculture landscape would also be transformed.
“This will lead people to move from the more conventional potato farming to the more value adding option like floriculture.”
INVESTORS SUMMIT
The authority found out that a proper perfume park still doesn’t exist anywhere across India, so there is a big opportunity for the one that’s going to come up in Kannauj, as there are perfume industries all across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
The corporation is organizing a small investors summit in the city at a local level which will cater to both perfume manufactures as well as to Agarbatti manufacturers. Once the perfume is processed, the output or the waste material of perfume manufacturing is an input for the agarbatti industry. Up to 40% of the perfume manufacturing output or waste material can be utilized as an input for the agarbatti manufacturing industry.
“We have also planned a larger investor summit, most likely in either Lucknow or Delhi. We will be inviting global and bigger Indian investors to it,” Mr. Meena said.
As for the perfume park, the corporation has targeted to get it operational within the next two and half months. The roads have been laid, electricity poles are being installed, and the substation is about 30% complete. In the coming days, they will also start allotting plots to interested people.
