Hosiery units of Kanpur band together

About 50 manufacturers of hosiery items of Kanpur have got together and formed the North India Hosiery Industry Association, with the aim of reviving the industry in the city.

In hosiery, Kanpur was next only to Calcutta 20 years ago. But since then it has fallen way behind, with a turnover of just Rs 300 crore.

The association wants to establish a hosiery park in the city, but that will happen only if the bureaucracy of Uttar Pradesh allows.

This idea germinated when some of them went to Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu. "The industry in Tiruppur is using machines we had never seen and we then decided that we have to modernise our industry," said Manoj Banka, president of the association and a hosiery maker.

The delegation concluded that Tiruppur had nothing to offer as far as knitting was concerned. "In this, they use the machines which we are using here," Banka said.

"They are using better machines for bleaching and are giving much better results. However, the real lag was in stitching, the key to a finished product. In stitching they are using the most modern machines, mainly from Taiwan, and also Japan," Banka added.

"We had never heard of these Taiwanese companies or even seen these machines, but we realised that the key to our revival is modernising our stitching. And this could not be done because we do not have trained people to run these machines. Therefore, the first task is to train them," said Pramod Surana, secretary of the association.

The association took initiatives to rope in the Small Industries Service Institution (SISI), Kanpur, and Mahela Machines, the vendors of Taiwanese machines, to sign a deal for training. Space has been provided by the SISI and trainers have come from Tiruppur. The costs are being shared by the association and the machine dealer.

The first batch of 12 has been trained in stitching on new machines. A second batch of 30 is starting a month's training. More and more are in the queue. Those who wish to establish their own stitching machines are being provided a loan of Rs 2 lakh from the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana. On placement, they get Rs 4,000 a month.

However, here they are facing obstacles from the UP bureaucracy. The UP State Industrial Development Corporation had established a hosiery textile park at Ruma, about 30 km from Kanpur.

They had identified 198 plots and sold them all for Rs 800 per square metre. They cut large plots of 3,000-4,000 sq m. However, it did not ensure only industry persons bought them. Many investors too have bought these plots. Strangely, the SIDC, after having sold all plots, has now fixed the rate at Rs 2,000 per square metre!

The hosiery industry asks when they do not have any plot, then why they are fixing a price? Secondly, the plot size is too large for most and the SIDC did not talk to industry on this. Since most land has been taken by investors.

They want to sell and SIDC by fixing higher price is only helping the investors to make money. It is making things difficult for industry to buy plots.

Similarly more then twenty days have elapsed and the KDA has not been able to identify a plot for them.

The association is still hopeful that they get a large plot where industry can develop a park. But after a long while a beginning has been made.