Southern mills association seek support

The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appealed the Tamil Nadu chief minister to allocate land in the coastal line as dedicated zone for textile processing and attract investments, for the growth of textile industry in the state. In an announcement, the association applauded the state government’s decision to issue Rs 9 crore grant towards the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP), which offers incentives for infrastructure development in the sector.

In the announcement, S Dinakaran, chairman of SIMA requested the chief minister to earmark a few thousands of acres of land along the coastal line and declare them as dedicated zone for textile processing and attract investments.

This would also become a “permanent solution for the perennial pollution problem in the states which provides direct and indirect employment to over 50 lakh people and fetching Rs 70,000 crores as foreign exchange earnings and accounting 1ô3rd of the textile business in the country,” it said.

Around 21 parks were recently sanctioned of which, only two are from Tamil Nadu. Of the 40 textile parks coming up in the country, eight are in Tamil Nadu and one of it, promoted by SIMA is the dedicated textile processing park with marine discharge facility at Cuddalore.

He also requested the chief minister to nominate the director of Handlooms as the single window facilitator for getting all clearance from the varios State and Central government authorities and thus, to expedite the process of implementation of the park.

It took more than six years for SIMA to get all the clearances and kick start the park. He added that the SIMA park would commence the commercial production in a period of about 18 months and will provide direct and indirect employment to around 30,000 people.

He thanked the chief minister for approving incentives under the SITP, which enables States to provide nine per cent or a maximum of Rs 9 crore grant to strengthen the facilities.

The scheme provides 40 per cent grant subject to a maximum of Rs 40 crore for infrastructure development including land building, roads, drainage, water supply, electricity, effluent treatment plant, training centre, testing, laboratory, canteen, workers hostel, recreation facilities and marketing support system.