Apparel park to revive Jetpur's textile trade fortunes

Jetpur, once a dyeing and print processing hub in Gujrat, has been facing various problems over the last few years.

Pollution related issues, dynamics of fashion in textile trade, Chinese trade aggression and shortage of raw materials has hit the textile industry of Jetpur.

The proposal of setting up a state-of-the-art Textiles Apparel Park at Pithadiya near Jetpur has pumped enthusiasm among the traders and business fraternity mainly associated with the textile dying-printing profession.

"The units in Jetpur are mainly engaged in printing textiles and presently we are procuring raw material from ginning units located in the surrounding areas such as Manavadar, Gondal and Shapar-Veraval," claims Virjibhai Vekaria, President of Jetpur Dying & Printing Association.

We process orders from the business circuits of Kolkata and Mumbai, which is mere, he adds. None of the units in Jetpur are technically equipped for manufacturing finished textiles goods, as majority of business establishments in the city works on a traditional platform and secondly availing raw-material has become difficult, explains Vekaria.

With the textiles apparel park shaping up near Jetpur,the business turnover and employment opportunities are likely to double in the region.

"Presently the business volume of entire trade ranges between Rs 85 crore and Rs100 crore per annum housing 20,000 employees, which is likely to double as we expect 100 new units shaping-up," says Vekaria.

The park would employee additional 20,000 people from this area, as there would be a huge demand of manpower having expertise in the textile sector and secondly, turnover is also likely to scale somewhere between Rs 190 crore and Rs 200 crore per annum, adds Vekaria.

'Khanga' & 'Kitanga' style of cotton dressing code mainly used in the African sub-continent was processed at Jetpur and exported to African countries, "Jetpur alone contributes to 80 per cent of the requirement of Khanga-Kitanga segment till 2001, but as cheap Chinese products entered the market Jetpur's contribution fell to 40 per cent," explains Jitendra Bosamia, a eminent business operator of the city.

Jetpur's foreign trade has also suffered in the last few years and hence it has becomes necessary to find new avenues for surviving, he adds.

We process a single saree which is priced between Rs 20 and Rs 40 per piece. As a result business volumes are high but profit margins are extremely low. Hence, doubling our capacity or probably diversifying business in similar trade is the only way out for us, argues Bosamia.

Farmers faced initial road-blocks in procuring land owing to pollution issues in the past.

"Dye-printing units have polluted the land to such an extent, that precipitations of the hard coloured water have got deposited on the land and nearby areas.

Water levels have depleted as the land is choked with precipitations, which even affects the fertility of the soil," says Nathabhai Patel, a local farmer from Pithadiya.

As the agriculture belt in this region produces groundnuts and cotton in abundance, probability of losses in livelihood was not acceptable by the farmers.

However, with the administration taking utmost care in balancing development and rural economy, orders for land procurement have shot up, "After working out an amicable solution, the District Collectorate has issued orders for procuring 50 acres of land," explains M A Jagani, Jetpur Mamlatdar.

Further procedural parameters are being co-ordinated by Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), for letting the project experience the real business buzz, he adds.