The Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Mr. Anand Sharma, recently launched 21 new textile parks approved under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP). These new parks take the total number to 61 parks as 40 parks were sanctioned earlier.
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.
SITP has been instrumental in development of a wide range of models for green field clusters from a 1,000-acre FDI-driven integrated cluster to a 100-acre powerloom cluster and a 20-acre handloom cluster. Under the scheme, 61 parks have been sanctioned – 40 projects were started in the 11th Five-Year Plan and another 21 projects are to be implemented in the 12th Plan.
Out of the 40 parks sanctioned earlier, a total of 25 parks are already operational. Most of the other parks are expected to be completed during this financial year. The estimated employment generation is over 10 lakh persons with total estimated investment of Rs. 27,562 crores.
Mr. Sharma also released a coffee table book on SITPs. The book encapsulates the broad features of various ITPs set up all over India and is a ready reference for the same. The book gives a brief physical and pictorial status of each ongoing park approved under SITP.
In this year’s Budget speech, the Finance Minister had announced an additional amount of upto Rs. 10 crores per park for setting up apparel manufacturing units for the projects under SITP. Necessary action is being taken for implementing the announcement.