The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat garment body seeks more time to set up units

Gujarat Garment Cooperative Industrial Estate Ltd on Friday urged the State Government to give it a breather till March 2008 to enable its members to set up their units at Kudasan in Gandhinagar district where the district collector has warned them with cancellation of land allotment if they failed to set up their factories by November this year.

Grievance

Addressing a news conference here, the organisation's Chairman, Mr Trilok Agrawal, said the State Government had allotted 60,000 sq yards of land to the cooperative body for its small-scale garment-making members to set up nearly 80 factories in 1993. But, the Government failed to develop adequate infrastructure, including electricity, road and transport.

Due to non-availability of even single-phase power, many of the units had to be closed down in 1998. Electricity was provided only last year.

Currently, only one unit is working at Kudasan but more than 40 are ready to return by 2008, who would together employ nearly 15,000 local people, he said.

Infrastructure

The State Government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in January 2005 with the cooperative body, assuring that the Government would develop infrastructure provided the body set up the garment zone by November 2006.

But, the State Government failed to pay the Rs 2.50 crore it had promised, and the garment units themselves had to spend Rs 3 crore to develop infrastructure, only to be slapped with a notice in June this year to cancel allotment of the alleged defaulters and bringing in new members.

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