The Tamil Nadu Government has approved of a cluster project for coir units in Pollachi and has disbursed ₹2.14 crore as first phase grant for the programme.
The General Manager of Coimbatore District Industries Centre (DIC), B. Karthigaivasan, said that a group of coir units had formed a special purpose vehicle and submitted a project to the government to make coir tufted mats and coir geo textiles.
While the total project cost stood at ₹7.98 crore, the State Government would give ₹5.77 crore as grant. The remaining amount would be invested by the industries. The government had released the first phase of the grant amount, he said.
A facility was coming up at Vellalapalayam in Pollachi and was expected to be commissioned by the end of this year.
One of the members of the cluster said that 33 units had come together to form the special purpose vehicle. These units would supply the raw material (coir yarn) to the common facility centre, which would have tufting machinery and equipment to make geo textiles. The value added products would be marketed by the special purpose vehicle.
The member explained that earlier the coir units in Pollachi used to supply yarn to Kerala to be made into products. In the recent years, China was importing a lot of fibre from Pollachi. Nearly 250 new units had come up because of the demand for fibre. But the challenge was that the buyers determined the price and the fibre price was low.
“We need to make value added products to get better realisation,” the member said.
When the common facility is commissioned, almost 300 coir spinning machines will get jobs. The fibre made into yarn will be supplied to the facility where it will be made into value added products. The project will help coir units in Pollachi get into different product segments.
