Telangana, AP vie for setting up mega textile parks

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the front runners in the race for bagging PM MITRA parks as announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, according to highly placed sources.

With an aim to create world-class infrastructure with plug-and-play facilities that enable major investments in exports, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved seven new mega textile parks with an outlay of Rs 4,445 crore.

Both the Telugu States are strong contenders for the Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks due to the textile-rich industry and the expanse of the same in the two States.

PM MITRA is inspired by the 5F vision of the Prime Minister that encompasses 'Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion and Fashion to Foreign' which is an integrated vision to help furthering and growth of the textile sector in the country.

These seven Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Parks will be set up at Greenfield/ Brownfield sites located in the willing States.

Proposals of the State governments having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcels of 1,000 acres along with other textiles related facilities and ecosystem are being considered for the same.

Among the States competing for it are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat, Assam and Rajasthan. The Centre has a plan outlay of Rs 4,445 crore (over 5 years) for the same. Each State is mounting pressure on the Centre for its share in the programme and all these State governments have forwarded their proposals to the Centre.

The Maximum Development Capital Support (DCS) of Rs 500 crore to all Greenfield PM MITRA and a maximum of Rs 200 crore to Brownfield PM MITRA will be provided for the development of Common Infrastructure (30% of the project cost) and Rs 300 crore of Competitiveness Incentive Support (CIS) will also be provided to each PM MITRA park for early establishment of textiles manufacturing units. State government support will include provision of 1,000-acre land for the development of a world-class industrial estate.

AP and Telangana are keen that they bag the prestigious projects that are aimed to project the Indian textile market at the global level as these parks not only provide a huge employment base. At least one lakh to two lakh persons could be employed in these, according to the Union government estimates.

Each of these parks shall have a core Infrastructure: Incubation Centre & Plug & Play facility, Developed Factory Sites, Roads, Power, Water and Waste Water System, Common Processing House & CETP and other related facilities such as Design Centre, Testing Centres etc, and a Support Infrastructure: Workers' hostels & housing, logistics park, warehousing, medical, training & skill development facilities.

Yet another benefit is that convergence with other Central government and State government schemes is also available under the programme. Telangana has proposed a park at Warangal meeting all the requirements of the Centre for the PM MITRA scheme.

AP which is ranked seventh in the country's cotton production has about 150 spinning mills in the State, with a capacity of approximately 40 lakh spindles producing 20 lakh kg cotton yarn per day.

Further, there are around 18,000 power looms of which about 9,000 are shuttle looms and 1,300 high-speed air jet looms. Andhra Pradesh has well-developed ginning and spinning segments in the textile industry and is one of the leading producers of cotton in the country.