Knitwear exports from Tirupur cluster have registered growth during the just-concluded 2010-11 fiscal despite the textile hub being beset by a plethora of problems including raw material price hike and closure of dyeing units by a court order for violating pollution control norms.
The statistics disclosed by Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) president Arumugam Sakthivel states that exports from Tirupur knitwear cluster had leapfrogged from Rs. 11,800 crore in 2009-10 to Rs. 12,500 crore in 2010-11 financial year.
However, Mr. Sakthivel was quick to point out that though the exports had shown an increase in terms of value, the profit margins for the exporters shrunk in 2010-11 fiscal due to the abnormal rise in the prices of cotton as well as cotton yarn and the transportation costs.
On the crisis experienced in the dyeing sector, Mr. Sakthivel said that steps were being taken to expedite the compliance of zero liquid discharge (ZLD) norms stipulated for the effluent treatment process. “About Rs. 1,200 crore have been invested so far into the setting up of Common Effluent Treatment Plants and Individual Effluent Treatment Plants in the cluster, in an attempt to prevent any further discharge of effluents into River Noyyal,” he added.
Mr. Sakthivel was all praise for the eco-green industrial evaporator developed by NIFT-TEA College of Knitwear Fashion which had come as a feasible solution for attaining the ZLD in the effluent treatment process.
The eco-green evaporator was developed by the research team of NIFT-TEA institute led by its chairman Raja M. Shanmugam and comprising technocrats and industrial stakeholders as well as officials from Textiles Committee under the Union Government on an advisory role, as members. “We will make sure that the gadget get popularised among the dyeing unit owners and also obtain the necessary approval for its operations from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board,” Mr.Sakthivel said.
He said that the marine discharge project was seen only as a long term solution for disposal of treated industrial effluents.
