Agra: Once a pioneering industrial hub specialising in the manufacturing of leather shoes, cast iron pipes and foundry products, glassware, and handicrafts, Agra’s industrial scene today is simply put “depressing and dismal.”

The industrialists never had it so bad. Many are already planning to shift base, as they see no hope of revival without some relief package from the state government.

“All kinds of restrictions on expansion, the opening of new units and diversification were thrust on small units in the Taj Trapezium Zone, in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement in the famous PIL on Taj pollution by eco lawyer MC Mehta,” recalled former president of the Agra chapter of the National Chamber of Industries and Commerce, Rajiv Gupta.

Supreme Court monitoring committee member Raman said “neither the air nor the water pollution level has come down. The pollution levels remain alarming. The Taj Mahal whose safety was considered paramount by the apex court is hardly safe from pollution, but in all this hyped exercise, the industries in Agra have suffered a massive blow.”

Once Agra was the number one producer of foundry products, including agricultural implements, generators, and pipes, that helped India’s green revolution in the 1970s. Firozabad which was part of the Agra district till 1987, was number one in glass products, including bangles. The district was full of flour, daal, and oil mills. The city was a leading producer of petha, namkeens, handicrafts, carpets and leather shoes. But in the past three decades, due to strict restrictions most industries have closed or shifted. The shoe industry continues to lead, with severe limitations.

Locals claim that one can not think of Agra without the 17th-century monument of love, the Taj Mahal, but there is much more to the city than the monuments.

‘The whole Braj Mandal, roughly the area now under the Taj Trapezium Zone, was a vibrant centre of entrepreneurial excellence that catapulted Agra to the national forefront, decades ago,’ according to historian Raj Kishore Raje.

No other city in India can boast of producing a range of items for which raw materials are not locally available.

‘Agra is famous for iron foundries, glassware, leather shoes, its peculiar sweet called petha, and also handicrafts. But the raw material for all these industries is not locally available. It is the skilled workers, the artisans, craftsmen, the entrepreneurial class in Agra that has made the city rank among India’s top industrial towns,’ Says Sonal Mittal Singh of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.

Gourd, from which petha is made, comes from Maharashtra and other southern states. It is processed and turned into a sweet by skilled workers in Agra. The story goes that the Taj Mahal was built by 22,000 workers who consumed petha for instant energy in Agra’s hot summer months.

Back from the brink Iron foundries depend on supplies of pig iron and coal, as well as natural gas from outside the state. ‘But it is the dexterous hands and desi (local) technology that evolved over years, to produce cast iron products including manholes that found markets even in America. Now a whole range of products is cast. During the green revolution, Agra’s iron foundries provided solid support for manufacturing pumps, agricultural implements and Diesel engines.

Marble and coloured precious stones come from Rajasthan and various other places, but the expert in-lay artists and craftsmen here create intricate art pieces.

The glassware and bangles of Firozabad, are famous the world over. The glass manufacturers use soda ash and silica sand, which come from Gujarat and Rajasthan. ‘But it is the expertise, the skills of workmen, that really contribute to the growth and advancement of this industry,’ says an industrialist of Firozabad.

How and why Agra became the chief centre of the leather shoe industry, nobody knows. For the past eight decades and more, Agra has continued to remain number one in terms of the production and exports of leather shoes.

Leather and other raw materials come from Chennai and other centres. The leather shoe industry employs more than 1,00,000 workers directly and sustains 2,00,000 more in various ways. ‘The local workers, designers, cutters, and others are not just hard-working but have very creative talents and keep coming up with new ideas to stay ahead in the race,’ according to a leading exporter Harvijay.

Talking of the entrepreneurial genius of the local banias, retired banker PN Agarwal says, ‘Agra’s industrial base and entrepreneurial class were highly evolved and had far-reaching interests and networks.’ The local Seths financed not only the Mughals but also officers of the East India Company, he adds.

K C Jain, president of the Agra Development Foundation, regrets that the traditions and legacy of the city have long been neglected. ‘More attention these days is focussed on stones and monuments as tourism brings money. But for society’s balanced growth, arts, culture, cuisine and industry should all be seen as heritage and conserved,’ Jain said.