Textile body to build industry park

Earlier, the industry body had sought 300 acres for the project. Speaking at a press conference on TEXVision 2008, an annual exhibition on textiles trade and industry in West Bengal, Vijay Kumar Binaykia, president of COTTI, said, about 70-75 acre of land was in the process of being acquired.

COTTI has approached the Union ministry of textiles for grant under the SITP (Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks). However, full ownership of land was a criteria for getting a SITP grant.

Land was worth 40 per cent of the project cost or Rs 40 crore, whichever was less. This norm was delaying the process, said Binaykia. In a charter of demands presented to the West Bengal government, COTTI has sought power at a subsidised rate for the project for the initial five years, easy availability of credit without collateral and permission for setting up a readymade garments manufacturer's cluster in West Bengal.

Apart from this, COTTI demanded a revised weight credit covering factory erection, construction and material costs as well as machinery cost.

Some of the major textiles sector projects expected to come up in West Bengal included the hosiery park of the West Bengal Hosiery Association at Jagdishpur in the Howrah district and a 13 acre readymade garments' cluster in Sector V near Salt Lake among others.

The SITP grant for the hosiery park project was also held up because of land acquisition problems, though the hosiery association had acquired close to 35 acres against a target of 125 acre.

In its recently released textiles policy, the West Bengal government set a target of setting up 20 integrated textile parks, three jute parks, 50 additional handloom clusters, one integrated silk processing and printing complex (SPPC) and "an ultra-modern Integrated Textile Township" in the state in the next five years using the public private partnership model.