Bengal to develop textile parks

West Bengal is going to develop an apparel and a garment park to take the benefit of the post quota regime in textile export.

The apparel park will come up on the National Highway-6, south of Kolkata, with ready port and airport connectivity. The garment park would be developed within heart of the capital on the land of a closed state public sector enterprise.

Nirupam Sen, minister for industry and commerce, government of West Bengal, said parks were being developed with an eye on the huge opportunity in textile export. At present, state's textile export is negligible.

However, the quota on textile export from developing countries like West Bengal will be lifted in two days time while the apparel park will come up only after two years.

The apparel park will come up on a 216 acre land while the garment park will be developed on 10 acre land of National Tanneries. The work for the garment park, where stitching, knitting and garment manufacturing would be done, has been kicked off with the government floating tender for expression of interest (EoI) for appointment of contractor.

For the apparel park at Uluberia, the land acquisition process has started.

"Since dyeing and bleaching activities can not be undertaken within city area, we are developing two facilities for the same sector. The apparel park will be outside city limits. We also expect spinning mills to come up there," Sabyasachi Sen, principal secretary, government of West Bengal added.

Even though, the state does not have large area for cotton cultivation, start has been made to grow the fibre in Sunderbans. As for the manmade fibre, the government is banking on the downstream units of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL).

The cost of development of the apparel park is estimated at Rs 50 crore. Out of this, Rs 17 crore is expected from the government of India. As for the garment park, the cost has been pegged at Rs 40 crore.

While developing the facilities, the government has decided to give focus on working conditions of labours. For instance, a women's hostel will come up at the garment park to facilitate women workers who work in large numbers in this sector.

"Importing companies pay lot of attention on the working condition people. So we are developing facilities to meet their need," Sen informed.