Textile body plans institute in Gujarat

National Textile Committee, a government of India body, is planning to open an institute for garment workers in Gujarat under the public-private partnership.

The garment industry in the state itself needs at least 10,000 skilled employees each year for the next three years.

"There are several companies who hire freshers, train them and later the same employees shift to Bangalore for better prospects resulting in manpower crunch in Gujarat," said Nayan Parikh, chairman of National Textile Committee (NTC).

Even the state government has shown keen interest in the project. "For the institute, the state government has plans to invest around Rs 2 crore and may also add the curriculum of the institute in the ITI course," he said.

"In this public-private partnership, different experts from various private companies will provide training power," he added.

For this institute, the committee will follow the curriculum of Sardar Patel Institute of Textile Management (SPITM), Coimbatore. "Apart from SPITM, we are also looking at the curriculum of other institutes," said Parikh.

However, the structure of the institute is not yet ready and is in the planning process which may take a couple of months to be finalised, he added. Talking about the garment industry, Parikh said this industry hired around 20 lakh people in the last two years.

"Comparatively, in Gujarat it was very less and now the state needs at least 10,000 people per year for the next three years," he said.

He further added that as Tirupur has become a brand name for knitted wear, Ahmedabad should also become a brand name for garments in the international market. "The knitwear industry produces items worth Rs 10,000 crore per year whereas the garment industry in Gujarat is much lower turnover and it is also unorganised," he said.