Women-run garment manufacturing unit to open in Raipur by early next year

A garment factory to employ over 2,000 women and manufacture branded clothes by early next year will come up in Chhattisgarh's capital city Raipur.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has already inaugurated the first-of-its-kind factory in the state that will provide employment exclusively to women.

The facility, to be set up on a 45,000 square feet area, will be managed by the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).

“The infrastructure development work for the factory in the state capital has almost completed,” a senior RMC official said.

“As of now, Rs 15 crore has been invested in the project,” the official added.

The factory to employ 1,000 women in the first phase will later be expanded to generate employment for over 2,000 women.

Initially, 1,000 high-tech sewing machines have been set up in the factory, the official said, adding that the brand name is yet to be finalised.

Women having basic sewing knowledge would be recruited in the factory after training. Even for freshers, the management will run training classes, the official said.

The facility would be similar to the Nawa Dantewada Garment Factory set up in Dantewada, once the hotbed of Maoist violence. Offering employment to around 200 people in two shifts, the unit set up in January 2021 initially produced uniforms for CRPF and NMDC.

The Dantewada factory, which employed mostly tribal women from Bastar’s Dantewada district, made uniforms with the brand name ‘DANNEX’, which stands for Dantewada Next.

The garments manufactured in the Raipur facility will cost less compared to the metro cities and hence demand would be higher, the RMC official said.

The RMC will appoint a consultant and plans to operate the factory under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The consultant will hold talks with the leading readymade garment firms of the country to manufacture the products.

“A delegation of RMC officials will be visiting the states concerned to study the model so that it can be effectively implemented here,” the official said.

The RMC management is hopeful that by early next year, the manufacturing work will start.