Textile players in Gujarat have welcomed the union budget presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Parliament on Thursday as the latter announced setting up of a mega-cluster in Surat for textiles.

The Finance Minister, in his speech had proposed to set up six textile mega-clusters each at Bareily, Lucknow, Surat, Kuttch, Bhagalpur, Mysore and one in Tamil Nadu with an budgetary allocation of Rs 200 crore.

Surat’s textile industry, which involves spinning, weaving, processing, garmenting and exports, employ around 1.5 lakh people directly. Market estimates put the industry turnover in the range of Rs 40,000 crore –Rs 50,000 crore annually.

The chamber and industry leaders had represented several times to integrate the entire value chain of textile industry under one roof. “There was mismatch between the policies of state and Centre. Now what we say in State is in sync with the Central policies, hence there are brighter prospects of growth,” said Ajoy Bhattacharya, past president, South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI).

“The industry has been disintegrated. There was a need to bring them under one umbrella. The entire value chain is interlinked, hence if there is disturbance at one level of value chain, the entire textile industry has to suffer,” said Bhattacharya.

Surat’s textile industry produces synthetic fabric including dress materials, saris and home textiles among others.

Also, the announcement of textile clusters will create employment opportunity in the sector, which was facing sluggish growth for past couple of years.

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