"Ludhiana's hosiery industry is not hopeful of getting back its payments from buyers in Kashmir for the supply of woollen items as floods have caused unimaginable destruction in Kashmir," Knitwear Club, Chairman, Vinod Thapar told PTI today.
Describing massive destruction in Kashmir as "biggest setback" to one of the oldest hosiery clusters, Thapar said majority of industrial units engaged in supply of woollen items to Kashmir, were fearing heavy losses on account of payments getting stuck.
"There has been no contact with the buyers in Kashmir because of paralysed telecom network, caused by floods" said Thapar while sharing the pain and grief of the victims of flood-affected Kashmir.
As per industry analysts, the payments in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 100 crore are likely to get stuck.
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Ludhiana's hosiery industry supplies range of sweaters, pullovers, jackets, shawls and blankets to Kashmir as the valley is a potential market for woollen items.
"As against other markets in the country, Kashmir has demand for hosiery items for most number of months which is 10 months in a year," said Thapar.
"We supplied truck load of woollen items worth Rs 30 lakh on September 2 to one of our buyers in Kashmir. But so far we have not been to know whether the consignment reached its destination, triggering worries about hosiery goods," Ludhiana-based Companion Hosiery, Director, Suraj Gupta.
Gupta, whose factory has been supplying hosiery items to Kashmir since 1962, said, "we have not been able to establish contact with our buyers in Kashmir because of floods.
"In a way, we are also one of the sufferers of floods in Kashmir as payments are going to get stuck," he said.
"The government should take notice of possible financial loss to the industry and announce some compensation for the same," said Gupta.