State may get four major textile projects

T. N. to also get a research centre under Centre’s plan

Tamil Nadu is likely to get three textile parks and a technology research centre under schemes that the Union Ministry of Textiles is formulating.

According to industry sources here, the Ministry is preparing a “Mega Textile Park Scheme” and plans sector-specific textile parks. The State is expected to get one mega textile park, a technology park for textile machinery, a technical textiles park and a technology research centre.

For the mega textile park, the State should provide a minimum of 1,000 acres. A couple of locations in Tamil Nadu have been suggested to the Centre for this.

In the case of textile machinery, the aim is to make textile machinery production indigenous by developing technology in-house or bring it from other countries. The infrastructure for this project is proposed to be developed in Surat and Coimbatore and these will be smaller parks.

For technical textiles park, Salem is likely to be the choice, the sources said. A technology research centre will most likely come up in Coimbatore.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry has welcomed the efforts of the Union Textile Ministry, which would help the Indian textile and clothing sector has to scale up its operation.

Scaling up operations

T. Rajkumar, chairman of the confederation, said the country was at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the scale of operation and countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam were able to seize the opportunities created by China’s withdrawal.

At a meeting held by Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani recently, representatives from global brands that had retail operation in India said they had to import from countries such as China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka because of volume and cost advantage.

They said that India did not have large players to meet their demands.

Mr. Rajkumar said the Centre had been making efforts to attract Foreign Direct Investment, joint venture projects, and investments from vertically integrated textile players in the mega textile parks. The government was thinking of major support to attract investments and ensure hassle-free fast clearances for units to set up integrated facilities.

The minimum investment by each unit should be ₹500 crore in the mega parks. These projects would open up opportunities for the textile sector in the domestic and international markets, he added.