The West Bengal directorate of textiles has decided to set up a mega carpet cluster at Malgaon village in Kaliaganj block of the district where hand-woven Banarasi style carpets are being made since the middle of 1980s. Weavers in a remote village in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal have been stitching these carpets for around three decades, but with little recognition.

The preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for the mega carpet cluster at Malgaon is nearly complete. Work for the project will start after the government approves the DPR, said District Industries Centre general manager Sunil Sarkar.

Besides weaving woolen carpets, the facility will have arrangements for training of workers, designing of carpets and marketing of the products. As of now, around 300 women weave carpets in the village as members of Malgaon Handloom Cluster Development Society, formed in 2009.

The society’s president Siddique Hossain said that five European experts were recently brought to Malgaon by a Kolkata-based export organisation and they were highly impressed with the quality of carpets weaved there and said that there would be no problem in marketing the carpets of Malgaon in the West.

If the government takes proper care of the industry, the district could become the Varanasi of West Bengal. Around 40 carpets of various sizes are made in Malgaon in a month and their estimated total price is Rs 6 lakh.

The District Industries Centre makes arrangements to send these carpets to various handicraft fairs across the country fetching modest income for the weavers.

It was the effort of Abu Taher, a resident of Malgaon who took interest in carpet weaving during a visit to Varanasi in 1978. He brought the technical knowledge of weaving Baranasi carpet back to his village.