Guj Garment Zone fails to elicit central help

The plan of setting up 25 apparel parks by the textile ministry seems all talks as an apparel park in Ahmedabad, proposed in 1994, is still awaiting central assistance. The park has yet to commence work.

The 'Gujarat Garment Zone' was proposed to be set up in 1994 in a joint venture by the central and the state governments. However, the promoter (Gujarat Garment Manufacturers Industry Cooperative Society) is planning to develop the park on its own.

"With an increasing global demand, we are planning to set up the apparel park. Initially, the government promised to provide power to this apparel park in 1994, which did not materialize. Later on, the government promised to bear 50 per cent of the power cost, but now we have to buy electricity from Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) bearing the entire cost," Trilok Agarwal, chairman, Gujarat Garment Manufacturers Industry Cooperative Society, told Business Standard on Wednesday.

At present, the work of the apparel park has been put on hold because of a three-fold rise in the price of bricks due to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) guideline on the mandatory use of 25 per cent fly ash in brick making.

"We have put the issue with the textile minister and he has assured us to resolve the issue by talking to the concerned ministry," said Agarwal.

Considering the importance of the textile industry, the ministry has plans to offer subsidy to make it more competitive.

The ministry, in its role as a facilitator, has plans to establish 25 apparel parks and over 25 textile clusters in the country. The ministry has decided to club the apparel park scheme and textile centre infrastructure development scheme (TCIDS) to create a new fund to provide assistance upto Rs 50 crore for setting up new apparel parks in the country.

However, it seems that the ministry's plans are on paper only and the apparel parks and textile clusters are unable to benefit from the incentives and subsidy provided by the ministry.

Following the central government, Gujarat is also planning to set up over 10 apparel parks in the state apart from the two being set up in Ahmedabad and Surat, based on the policy recommendations by KSA Technopak, a joint venture of Krut Salmon Associates (KSA), one of the world's largest management consulting firm specialising in textile, consumer goods and retail sectors.