The Hindu Business Line : Gurgaon Apparel Mart to be ready by December

AS the New Textile Policy announced a couple of years ago had set the 's textile and clothing export target at $50 billion by 2010, the Government is keen on several of its selective initiatives bearing fruit faster.

One such major initiative is the setting up of an Apparel International Mart for imparting world-class facility to exporters to showcase their products.

The proposed Mart would also serve as a one-stop shop for the global buyers scouting for sourcing their exports from India as it has emerged as one of the few competitive suppliers of apparels both in price and in quality.

The nodal agency, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), implementing the Mart scheme, is quite sanguine that the Mart would be completed by December 2005.

The AEPC Secretary-General, Mr K.K. Jalan, told this correspondent at the construction site here that the Mart,the first of its kind in the country, would have a covered area of 3.5 lakh sq. ft. Construction activities are in full swing at the site with flooring and polishing being carried out at a frenetic pace.

The AEPC Chairman has written to the Prime Minister to open the apparel international mart in the second week of December.

There would be as many as 250 exclusive showrooms, apart from 70,000 sq.ft. area earmarked for exhibition.

Mr Jalan said that the top garment exporters including Orient Kraft Ltd, Shahi Export House, Gokaldas Exports Ltd and Modelama Exports have already booked 50 per cent of the showrooms.

He said AEPC is now broaching the booking of the remaining showrooms. The Council has already communicated to various banks for opening bank branches here, he added.

Corporation Bank, Punjab National Bank and IDBI had evinced interest , he said. AEPC will have its entire office shifted to the first floor in this multi-story building.

Among the salient features of the Mart are exhibition complex and business centres, auditorium and conference halls, travel and ticketing facilities, restaurants and easy access to a wide choice of merchandise under a single roof.

Integrated support services in the Mart include transport facility to important locations, hospitality with associated partner hotels, seven passenger lifts with up to 13 passenger capacity, goods lift with 3-tonne capacity and escalators for exhibition floor with Plaza area to accommodate 500 plus people.

When contacted the AEPC Chairman, Mr A. Sakthivel, told Business Line here that the Mart is a 15-minute drive from the Delhi International Airport where buyers coming from abroad could interact with as many as 250 leading exporters throughout the year and round-the-clock, instead of going around to different parts of the country to negotiate deals with individual exporters.

He said that the Mart would definitely hasten the emergence of India as a leading apparel exporter sooner than expected in the global market.

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