Apparel Park draws major players

Apparel Park draws major players

Deccan Herald

A whopping Rs 142.4 crore is likely to be invested by 27 garment firms and mills at the Apparel Park being set up near Doddaballapur on the outskirts of the city.

Developed by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) to give a thrust to the garment industry, the park will have companies such as Mudra Fabrics and Arrow Threads rubbing shoulders with Gokaldas Images, the Raymonds group and Amtek Industries on its 187-acre plot on the outskirts of the city.

In fact, all the land allotted for the park has been taken up by the industries and the KIADB is now looking at acquiring an additional 280 acres close to the park, said KIADB chief executive officer and executive member B A Harish Gowda.
“Some of the firms have begun construction of their facilities there. We have called for tenders for power and water supply infrastructure -- some of these have already been entrusted to contractors and would be completed in about three months. We will soon be calling for ‘expression of interest’ for setting up a sewage treatment plant and a common effluent treatment plant. These will take about five months to be established, by which time the firms would have set up their buildings too and the park would be ready for operations,” Mr Gowda told Deccan Herald.

Raymond group’s denim division Everblue Apparel Ltd is, perhaps, the largest investor, having committed to investing over Rs 38.9 crore in its Doddaballapur denim garments manufacturing unit. Gokaldas Images Pvt Ltd and Mudra Fabrics are the next highest investors, proposing to spend nearly Rs 25 crore and Rs 11.7 crore respectively in their units.

Interestingly, Binny Mills Ltd, which has long been in the red and has even faced employees’ wrath over non-payment of dues, has taken up nearly 14 acres at the Apparel Park, and has proposed projects to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore there.
The park has attracted a mix of firms involved in manufacture of home furnishings, knitted and readymade garments, embroidery, and thread and yarn production, textile dyeing and printing firms, fabric processing, warehousing and washing.

Establishment of the park began one-and-a-half years ago and it cost the Board Rs 51 crore, including land acquistion costs.

Powerloom Park
The Apparel Park, however, will not benefit weavers, though it was touted as an ‘employment for locals’ project by various Ministers earlier. For the 36,000 weavers in Bangalore Urban district and 20,000 weavers in Bangalore Rural district, the Textiles department has proposed a Rs 33.9 crore ‘Powerloom Park’ in Anekal. The park, spanning 200 acres, is to come up at the Jigani Link Road Industrial Area, said Textiles Commissioner Sandeep Dave.

“We have asked KIADB to start land acquisition. While we will set up worksheds and infrastructure, design and other training are part of the proposal. We will help weavers tie up with financial institutions for modernisation of powerlooms under the Central government’s Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme,” said Mr Dave.
The park will have a capacity for nearly 9,500 looms, to employ about 10,000 weavers in both weaving and dyeing, and allied sectors.

“The idea is to have a complete cluster of various processes. Karnataka is weak in post-loom processing and this park will have a market in providing raw material either for the Apparel Park or for export,” said Mr Dave.
Development of the park will require nearly one year after land acquisition.