Ministry to modernise 1,000 cotton factories

As a part of revolutionising the cotton industry, the Ministry of Textiles under Technology Mission on Cotton Cell (TMC) is set to modernise 1000 cotton factories (ginning and pressing) across the country by 2009. This move will help to enhance good quality production of Indian cotton.

"We have already sanctioned 777 factories and out of them 467 have already been modernised. Rs 220 crore has been earmarked for it out of which around Rs 80 crore has been released so far," said a source close to project implementation.

"There is a ratio of 25:75 in funding the project. We are taking care of 25 per cent of the cost and the rest is managed by the factory owner," the source added.

On an average, the Government is pumping a sum of Rs 20 lakh per factory. Earlier, only 500 factories were fixed as the target, but now it is revised to 1000 units.

"Recently the time frame for the project is extended to 2009 which earlier was 2006-07," the source said, adding that by March 2007, we expect another 123 factories will be sanctioned taking the total number to 900.

However, out of the approved factories, 84 per cent come from two states : Gujarat and Maharashtra constituting 651 factories. "The factories in other states are not coming forward to get the benefits of this scheme by which modernised units are getting concentrated in fewer parts of the country," said the ministry source.

At a moment when almost 65-70 per cent of land under cotton cultivation is under the hybrid variety of seeds, sources in the textile industry say modernisation of factories is the need of the hour and will help in boosting the cotton exports. Last year, India produced 244 lakh bales (each of 170 kg), out of which 55 lakh bales were of good quality were exported.

Sources in the industry say, that with the modernisation of factories by 2009, the export quality cotton will have its dominance.

There is around 4,000 cotton factories in India out of which, only 1200 are required, provided they are technically better equipped, said the source.

According to them 100 have been upgraded by the owners themselves and 100 other are undergoing changes under Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS).