G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore, April 17 The Palladam Hi-Tech Weaving Park (PHWP) project, first of the powerloom-based weaving clusters set up under the Central Government-sponsored scheme of integrated textile parks (SITP) in the country, has reached the take-off stage.

The Rs 250-crore project set on a 65-acre site at the outskirts of Palladam on the Coimbatore-Tiruchi sector of the National Highway is to be formally commissioned on April 19 by Mr P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister.

The project has been promoted as a public-private partnership programme in which the small-scale powerloom weavers as promoters have brought in their investment to set up individual units. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services is the project management consultant and has also lent financial support to the project along with SIDBI and a consortium of bankers.

The Centre and the State Governments have supported the project with their share of capital subsidies to raise common infrastructure. The Union Ministry of Textiles, on behalf of the Centre, has extended 40 per cent of the Rs 44 crore spent on infrastructure as subsidy and the Tamil Nadu government has provided about Rs 5 crore.

Designed to produce woven fabrics for the home textiles market, especially for use in the healthcare and hospitality sectors, the production facility created inside the park includes 92 weaving sheds to house about 700 weaving machines (at final stages of completion).

The common facilities provided include roads, water, waste water treatment, electricity, and supply of compressed air. Work on setting up workmen hostels, canteens, training centres and laboratory is on.

Mr Senthil Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the special purpose company PHWP, told press persons that the establishment of the weaving park will facilitate access to the latest technology in weaving and finance — the two crucial gaps in production management.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line