The Hindu Business Line : Mundra SEZ wooing textile cos from South

Best bet
Investment benefits and logistic linkages will render cos' project cost lower by 10 per cent and production cost by 8 per cent
Multi-modal connectivity through in-zone sea, air and rail link available in the SEZ will make product delivery efficient and cheap.

Coimbatore June 8 Southern textile houses fighting shy of investing further in their backyards on account of inadequate infrastructure may find investing in the Mundra port-based special economic zone in far-off Gujarat an attractive proposition.

Its strategic location in terms of raw material access/logistic conveniences and massive built-up infrastructure being developed to create common facilities at the 100-sq.km expanse Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd (MPSEZL) could be the attractive factors. The infrastructure company MPSEZL is being promoted by the Gujarat-based Adani group.

Mundra integrated textiles and apparel park, one of the industry-specific parks coming up in the sprawling MPSEZL area, will be a good bet for textile manufacturers/exporters looking to set up a manufacturing base. This is because investors promoting projects in the park stand to enjoy the twin investment entitlements under the scheme of integrated textile park (SITP) and SEZ scheme, according to Mr Bhavin Shah, Vice-President of MPSEZL.

Road-show

Mr Shah, who was here in connection with a road-show held in the city by MPSEZL, to woo investors from South-based textile enterprises, told Business Line that the company was targeting integrated garment manufacturers and composite textile industries from the South to pitch their projects in the Mundra textile park being developed on a 117-acre site.

Already five major textile producers including the Finland-based Ahlstrom, which has proposed a Rs 250-crore technical textile project in the park, are slated to set up their manufacturing projects in the MPSEZL area. Ahlstrom is expected to start its construction in a couple of months, he added.

A multi-product SEZ, Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone would be ideally focused on specific sectors including heavy engineering, drugs and chemicals, textiles, marble and granites and auto components.

Likely benefits

Gujarat, having 33 per cent share in the country's total cotton production and 35 per cent share in woven fabric production, would give the advantage to textile enterprises setting up shop in MPSEZL.

The multi-modal connectivity through in-zone sea, air and rail link available in the SEZ would make product delivery efficient and cheap. The investment benefits and the logistic linkages available to the textile manufacturers would render their project cost lower by 10 per cent and production cost by 8 per cent. This is besides other fiscal incentives such as perennial exemption in indirect taxes, capital cost at international level and extension of offshore banking to SEZ units, Mr Shah added.

The MPSEZL's Coimbatore road-show, attended by invitees from a vast cross section of spinning, weaving, processing and garmenting industries in the region, is to be followed by one more to be held in Bangalore on June 12.

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