Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee with EEPC (ER) chairman R.P. Sehgal (extreme left) in Calcutta on Saturday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, May 20: Buoyed by the Tata decision to set up its Rs 1-lakh car plant in Bengal, the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) is taking the initiative to set up an auto component park in the state.

The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) will help EEPC in this endeavour and the council has plans to turn the park into a special economic zone (SEZ) in future.

EEPC is also planning to revive and utilise the expertise of the eastern chapter of the Auto Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA), which is the largest organisation for auto component manufacturers. During the hay days of the Uttarpara factory of Hindustan Motors, the eastern chapter of ACMA had its headquarters in Calcutta. Once the Birla car company entered the slow lane in the state, the association shifted its headquarters to Jamshedpur.

?The recent developments which signal the revival of the automobile sector in the state has made us think on the lines of an auto component park. This park will be a one stop shop for any national or international auto major planning to set up base in the city or the region,? said R.P. Sehgal, regional chairman of EEPC, on the sidelines of an export awards ceremony.

The proposed park will be set up in the Kharagpur-Mecheda-Uluberia belt and need around 500 acres of land.

According to Sehgal, the park will initially house 150 to 200 units of varying sizes and the plan will be finalised in the next two months.