Tirupur exporters want govt, banks help on dyestuff closure

The knitwear hub of Tirupur estimates a loss of Rs 3,500 crore during the current financial year due to the closing of dyeing units in the town. The closure was ordered in January, on a high court order, for polluting water sources.

The garment industry in this town in south Tamil Nadu reported Rs 12,500 crore in 2010-11. The industry accounts 80 per cent of the country's knitwear production of the country.A Sakthivel, president of both, the Tirupur Exporters' Association, and Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said in the past three months, the industry in Tirupur reported a 30 drop in exports, of Rs 1,000 crore. As the situation is expected to continue, the industry would lose Rs 3,000-3,500 crore this year.“None of the units are taking new orders and to retain existing customers, the units are working on a loss,” said Sakthivel.He said the figure for unpaid loans to banks had reached Rs 1,500 crore and talks were on to get these restructured.

On Friday, Anand Sharma, who now holds the Union textile ministry as an additional charge, said he’d discuss the matter with his environment counterpart and the Tamil Nadu government, for a schedule to meeting environment norms. A public-private partnership model would be explored, where industry and government would work to develop a feasible solution.According to K Krishnan, general secretary, Tirupur Dyes and Chemicals Association, there are 720 units which were closed by the court order, operating in a 10-km radius. These employed 50,000-60,000 people directly and around 600,000 indirectly. While the estimated loss for these units is expected to be Rs 10 crore every day, the Tirupur knitwear industry, which depends on these units, says its loss is Rs 42 crore daily.

The knitwear industry now depends on Ludhiana, Kolkata, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala for dyeing. This had pushed up the price of T-shirts by Rs 2-3 a piece, said Sakthivel.