Garment city: IL&FS team coming for final study

A team from the Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services (IL&FS), which has been engaged by Sri Lanka-based Brandix for studying the feasibility of setting up a garment city at Achutapuram in Visakhapatnam district, is again coming here for further studies. IL&FS had already completed its preliminary studies and submitted its report to Brandix.

K Srikanth Prabhakar, deputy director of the department of handlooms and textiles, told Business Standard that the team from IL&FS would be visiting Vizag shortly for the final study.

Brandix has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to set up a garment city with an outlay of more than Rs 500 crore in the proposed AP Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) at Achutapuram where the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has allotted 1,000 acres of land for the project.

"The government has already started work on a sub-station and water supply system for the proposed Brandix project. Initially, we will give 300-400 acres of land to Brandix and later depending on their expansion plans, we will allot land up to 1,000 acres," Eswara Rao, zonal manager, APIIC, told Business Standard.

Brandix has entered into a collaboration with the US-based Brandot International for setting up the project, which will be developed in a phased manner.

Beginning with a cotton spinning unit, the company will proceed to set up readymade garment manufacturing, dyeing, spinning, fabric, zip, button, packaging and other units.

The proposed garment city initially requires 20,000 skilled employees and at later stages all the units may accommodate about 60,000 staff.

Keeping the employment potential in mind, the state government has already taken up a massive project to train about one lakh women in fashion technology in Vizag district through organisations like the District Rural Development Agency, Integrated Tribal Development Agency and the Municipal Corporation of Visakhapatnam.

Srikanth said Brandix might start the construction work by next fiscal. "The state government has started creating infrastructure facilities like roads, water and power supply," he added.