Vizag apparel park cancels 7 allotments

The Visakhapatnam Apparel Export Park has cancelled the allotment of land to seven entrepreneurs who had taken about 15 acres of land here due to non-payment of the balance amount.

"The seven entrepreneurs had paid just 10 per cent of the total land cost and failed to pay the remaining amount even one year after the allotment," K Srikanth Prabhkar, park administrator, Apparel Export Park and deputy director, department of handloom and textiles, told Business Standard.

Another four-five allotments would also be cancelled soon owing to the similar reason, he added.

Of the 71 acres of plated area at the Apparel Park, the government has already allotted 50 acres of land to 30 entrepreneurs.

Swarnag Apparels, the first unit at the park, will begin production within 25 days and the second unit, Hirawat Garments, would start operations within a couple of months, he said.

"We expect that by the end of December this year, about 28 units would start production. We expect to begin exports in good amount from the park in the fiscal 2007-08," Prabhkar said.

Of the 30 allotments, 10 unit operators can invest Rs 4-5 crore each to set up plants. The remaining entrepreneurs, who are small-scale investors, can invest between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2-2.5 crore to set up their units.

Prabhkar said that ten applications were still pending and the government would allot land to the applicants within a month.

The government has created initial infrastructural facilities like roads, water and power with an investment of about Rs 4 crore and would spend another Rs 20-22 crore for the remaining facilities like a state-of-the-art training centre in the next one-and-a-half years.