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Palladam Powerloom Park evokes good response
Sudha Swaminathan - Coimbatore
Response to the country’s first powerloom park
at Palladam near Coimbatore has been very encouraging with the promoters having
received application for 800 shuttleless looms.
Apart from the powerloom entrepreneurs, mills and processing
houses with plans for vertical integration have also evinced interest in the
park.
The promoters, Powerloom Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL)
and the Textile Commissioner’s Office are in the process of finalising
the land and are liasioning with the state government for exemption of land
registration fee. Even as the last date for expression of interest has expired,
the promoters are encouraging applications in an effort to take the number of
looms to 1,000.
Meanwhile, the TxC office is coordinating with financial
institutions like SBI, SIDBI, Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation,
Canara Bank, among others, to devise a special scheme exclusively for the park,
which would provide relaxed collateral security norms and competitive interest
rates of 9-9.5 per cent. To impress upon the bankers to come forward to provide
financial assistance to the powerloom entrepreneurs, the promoters have mooted
a sales linked debt recovery mechanism.
“We believe that when there is an assured way
of recovering the debts, the banks may consider relaxing the collateral security
norms”, said Mr N M Mugadur, director, regional office of the textile commissioner.
Besides the personal guarantee to loans, the powerloom entrepreneurs may provide
a group guarantee while approaching the banks in groups. With the park being
the first of its kind in the country, the special schemes evolved by the promoters
would set a precedent for others to follow suit. Therefore, the promoters are
taking extra caution to systematise the procedures in land acquisition and registration
and infrastructure development.
The proposed powerloom park will have four types of
sheds - 3,600 sq ft, 7,200 sq ft, 10,800 sq ft and 14,400 sq ft. Infrastructure
facilities offered at the park include common effluent treatment plant, spare
parts and accessories, quality testing lab, training, exhibition and conference
hall, canteen, creche and rest shed for workers. The common infrastructure facilities
will be set up with 75 per cent subsidy from the Centre and 25 per cent subsidy
from the state government of Tamil Nadu under the Textile Centre Infrastructure
Development Scheme (TCIDS).
Entrepreneurs can avail subsidy at the stage of construction
of the sheds under the group workshed scheme, which provides 25 per cent of
the construction cost or Rs 80 per sq ft whichever is less. Out of the total
cost of the shed, 25 per cent will come as a subsidy, 10 per cent as promoters
contribution and the rest 65 per cent as term loan from financial institutions,
for which support will be rendered by PDEXCIL. During the acquisition of plant
and machinery, powerloom weavers can avail five per cent interest reimbursement
or 12 per cent upfront capital subsidy under the Technology Upgradation Fund
Scheme (TUFS).
PDEXCIL has urged the government to enlarge the scope
of TUFS for the decentralised powerloom sector to provide 20 per cent direct
credit linked subsidy. PDEXCIL has set a target of establishing 10 such parks
all over the country and the council is
actively considering three more parks in Tamil Nadu at Erode, Thiruchengode
and Andipatti.
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