Four years on, plans for setting up textile park in Manapparai remain on paper

THE long time demand by the entrepreneurs and industrialists here to establish a textile park in Manapparai to promote the power loom textile industry seems to get no head-way even after four years since the plan was mooted. Inaugurating a three-day long buyer-seller meet at Tiruchy to pro-vide a marketing platform for marginal and established power loom weavers, district collector K Rajamani assured that proper infrastructure would be made available to tap the sleeping potential of Tiruchy in the textile sector.

 Organised by the Regional Office of Textile Commissioner, Coimbatore and Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL), the three-day long Buy-er-Seller Meet-cum-exhibition, fe-turing 23 stalls, is aimed at promoting sales of emerging manufacturers in the power loom sector at both domestic and international markets. With the western districts of Tamil Nadu including Karur and Tiruppur, considered as the bastion for textile manufacturers reaching the saturation point, sources said that investors are looking for options to expand their presence in non-textile manufacturing districts, like Tiruchy, citing the availability of land and manpower. "The districts that already have plenty of textile manufacturing units have been struggling to source local manpower. Since the non-textile manufacturing districts have land, manpower and a potential market, we can only think of expanding textile production units to such districts like Tiruchy," said G Kumaravel, Assistant Director, Regional Office of Textile Commissioner, Coimbatore, speaking to Express. Tiruchy city is sa id to have a float-ing population of 2 laths persons per day owing to its religious and cultural tourism potential.

 Even though 1,100 acres of land in Manapparai were identified to establish State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu Ltd (SIPCOT) facility, which could house a 20-acre textile park exclusively for promoting textile production units in the district, little is said to be done for giving a proper shape to the plan that remains on papers, for years "Since Tiruchy functions as a hub for a number of adjacent districts including Ariyalur, Perambalur, and Pudukkottai in the textile sector, developing a textile park in Tiruchy would be a wise option for promoting the power loom industry," said N Kanagasabspathy, president, Tiruchirapalli District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (TIDITSSIA). The three-day long Buyer-Seller Meet-cum-exhibition has started at Taj Marriage Hall on Karur bypass Road, here on Thursday. The meet would be on through Saturday promoting the sales of emerging power loom weavers. As Buyer-Seller meets would scrap the role of middlemen in taking the products to the public, the buyers are assured of affordable prices for quality products.
Source:epaper . new indianexpress . com//c/21258896