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Close on the heels of the Government of India announcing a Rs 1,480-crore National Technical Textiles Mission, the government of Tamil Nadu has decided to set up a ‘technical textiles park’ in Salem.
In an informal chat with BusinessLine on the sidelines of the annual meet of the Tamil Nadu chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the state’s Chief Secretary, Mr K Shanmugam, said that the government has planned two textile parks, in Tuticorin and Salem. The one in Salem would be for technical textiles, he said.
‘Technical textiles’ are textile material and products used for their technical performance rather than as personal clothing. They could be anything ranging from bullet proof and fire proof jackets and to sheets used in surfacing of roads and those used in medicines, such as bandages and gloves.
Technical textiles are conventionally divided into 12 broad categories: Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Mobiltech, Meditech, Protech, Sportstech, Oekotech, Packtech.
The Indian market for technical textiles is estimated at $16 billion (Rs 11,500 crore) and is growing at 12 per cent. The National Technical Textiles Mission aims to grow the market by 15-20 per cent a year, so that it reaches a size of $ 40-50 billion by 2024.
The global market for these products is estimated at $ 250 billion and is growing at 4 per cent a year. As such there are great export opportunities.
The industry has welcomed the idea of Tamil Nadu, one of the textile hubs of the country, giving the technical textiles sector a push. “The Kongunadu region, comprising towns such as Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Salem and Erode, is a place where good fabric is produced; setting up a technical textiles park here is a very good idea,” says M Raja, founder and President of the Coimbatore-based Saastha Technical Textiles.
R Jeyamohan, Project Director, TexValley, a marketing center for textiles near Salem, also welcomed the idea of a technical textiles park in Salem, but stressed that there should be tie-up with the buyers. K Hari Thiagarajan, Executive Director of the Madurai-based Thiagarajar Mills, who took over today as the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu chapter of CII, said that the government should also support in marketing technical textiles, perhaps by organizing buyer-seller meets.
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