Kohinoor garden reopens

TT, Alipurduar: The Kohinoor Tea Estate in Samuktala reopened on Sunday with a new owner taking over the garden that had been abandoned by the previous management over a bonus issue six months ago.

The garden, located around 20km from here, has 888 permanent workers.

For the past few weeks, Alipurduar district Trinamul leaders and the Bengal labour department had been taking initiatives to facilitate the reopening of Kohinoor. Finally, a tripartite meeting was held in Siliguri on March 22, where it was decide that the garden would reopen on Sunday.

Shyam Goyal, the new owner, said: "On Monday, we will pay a portion of the bonus and will clear the rest of the dues in a fortnight. Earlier, we had taken over another tea estate that was sick and it is in a better condition now. We hope to revive Kohinoor in due course."