Jabalpur garment makers await industrial cluster

Readymade garment makers of Jabalpur are awaiting an industrial cluster in the vicinity of the town.

Jabalpur has more than 550 small units manufacturing garments, including mainly aalwar suits (a traditional dress for Indian women), trousers, and shirts.

These units receive orders mostly from Southern India's reputed brands. The turnover, according to a rough estimate, stands at Rs 10 crore annually.

Though a proposal for developing a cluster is ready for them, the garment manufacturers do not want to move to an area identified by the state government.

The government should shift the units to Gurandi (a prime commercial locality), and thereby work and dispatches would be easier, a local garment manufacturer told Business Standard on the telephone from Jabalpur.

The state government has finalised the Rs 27-crore "cluster development plan", but it is still on the drawing board. It also plans to ask the Centre for financial support under the "Industrial Upgrade Plan".

"If the manufacturers are ready to move the Richhai industrial area, we can start the cluster in a year," a senior official in the state industrial department told Business Standard, adding, "as Gurandi is a commercial area, it will increase the project cost and there will be more difficulties in developing the cluster in that area."

Under the cluster development plan, facilities like a community centre, a market centre, sheds for units, a complex for guests and transportation, etc. are to be planned on an area of 10 acres.

"The complexes will be multistoried and will create direct and indirect employment to at least 10,000 people," said the official. However, a problem is that the scheme requires contribution from industry.

"The manufacturers are not interested in contributing to the fund. But we will manage to get the funds cleared from the Centre," said the official.