• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

G. Gurumurthy

COIMBATORE, April 8

TIRUPUR knitwear exporters got a positive signal from the Ministry of Textiles on their plea to locate an apparel park in Tirupur, with the Union Textile Secretary, Mr S.B. Mohapatra, promising to back their claim for an exclusive park for knitwear industry.

"Tirupur is certainly in the reckoning for a dedicated apparel park for knitwear," said Mr Mohapatra while addressing a meeting of the members of the Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) at the knitwear town on Monday.

(Later talking to newspersons, Mr Mohapatra said that his Ministry had advised the TEA President to identify land for locating the proposed park as it would require a minimum of 200 to 300 acres.)

The Union Secretary said under the proposed apparel park concept being considered by the Centre to encourage export of textiles and clothing, the Government would offer Rs 17 crore as grant (Rs 10 crore for infrastructure development, Rs 5 crore for common facility and Rs 2 crore for setting up training institutions).

The TEA President, Mr A. Sakthivel, who was present at the meeting, said that his association was looking out for suitable land for the park.

Mr Mohapatra also suggested to Tirupur exporters that they could associate with the State Government agencies such as the State Industries Development Corporation (Sidco) or the Small Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) for promoting the apparel park.

As for garment exports from the country, he maintained that exports would have shown a negative growth this year but for the contributions from the knitwear sector whose growth rate had compensated for the decline in the woven garments exports. This sector required all support and encouragement, he said.

Mr Mohapatra felt that instead of creating new special economic zones, it would be worth the while to convert the existing established national export zones such as Tirupur or Moradabad into `SEZs'. The TEA had suggested that the Centre should consider funding the New Tirupur Area Development Project designed to provide industrial water supply for the knitwear processing industries under the TUFS so that the rate of user-charge could be brought down to make it a viable project.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
TN Govt fusillade against Centre -- `DMK mismanaged paddy procurement'

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line