The capacity to produce coveralls in the country has been ramped up to more than one lakh units a day, according to an official press release.
Bengaluru has emerged as the hub for manufacture of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), accounting for nearly 50% of the production. Other places that have a large number of approved production units are Tiruppur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Ludhiana and Bhiwandi. Large-scale garment units in Bengaluru had taken to PPE coverall production in a big way. Some of these companies, that have scale of manufacturing, have invested in additional machinery as well.
A large number of non-woven textile manufacturers in Coimbatore-Erode belt in Tamil Nadu supply fabric to the coverall producers.
The release added that four laboratories in India have the synthetic blood penetration resistance test facilities and necessary approvals to conduct tests and certify body coveralls required for COVID-19.
These are, the South India Textile Research Association in Coimbatore, Defence Research and Development Establishment in Gwalior, and two laboratories under the Ordnance Factory Board — Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi and Small Arms Factory at Kanpur.
A unique certification code is generated for the prototype samples sent to these labs by the manufacturers of fabric and coveralls and the results are published on the websites of DRDO, OFB and SITRA. The laboratories now accept the sample of testing only on submission of an affidavit in the prescribed format by the organisation that wants to get the sample tested.
An official at SITRA said the association gets nearly 200 samples a day from different parts of the country.
