Commerce minister unveils 21 new textile parks

The Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles,

Anand Sharma launched 21 new textile parks on 23 April 2013, approved under Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP). With the launch of these new textile parks, the total number of existing parks has gone up to 61 in the country.

SITPs play an important and instrumental role in the development of a wide range of models for greenfield clusters from a 1,000 acre FDI driven integrated cluster, to a 100 acre powerloom cluster and a 20 acre handloom cluster. Out of the 21 new parks, six are in Maharashtra, four in Rajasthan, two each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and one each in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Karnataka, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

Out of the 40 parks which were sanctioned earlier under this scheme, 25 are already operational. Most of the parks would be completed during 2013-14 financial year. The scheme has helped generate employment for more than 10 lakh people with total estimated investment of Rs 27,562 crores. In the Union Budget for 2013-14, the finance minister had announced an additional amount of up to Rs 10 crores per park for the establishment of apparel manufacturing units for projects under the SITP scheme.