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Textile Valley to put Himachal industry on fast track

Vinod Behl in Delhi

As a part of its new industrial policy to attract indigenous and foreign investment, Himachal Pradesh has approved an investment of Rs 25.25 billion for setting up over a hundred projects in the medium and large scale sector. But the icing on the cake comes in the form of a Textile Valley which is set to put the state industry on a fast track.

In order to promote agro-based industries in the state, the state government is offering an attractive package of incentives to entrepreneurs. Already 10 fruit and vegetable processing units involving a capital investment of Rs 1.6 billion have been approved. Three units with an investment of Rs 300 million have been also set up.

The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagrah belt in Solan district, near Chandigarh is fast emerging as the textile valley of the country. It already has a dozen units with a total capacity of about 600,000 spindles. Another five new units with an additional capacity of 200,000 spindles are in the pipeline.

The Vardhman Group's units with an installed capacity of over 80,000 spindles and Winsome Textiles with a capacity of 25,000 spindles are the leading units in the area. Winsome Textiles is expanding its capacity by another 2,500 spindles. Birlas and Mahavir Spinning Mills units are also coming up in the region.

The Ispat group is setting up a Rs 4 billion unit at Nalagarh. With a capacity of 100,000 spindles, this will be the only textile unit with such a large spindle capacity under one roof. The unit will use the latest Japanese Toyoda technology which reduces manpower in a big way. The unit is expected to be operational soon. The tax-holiday, cheaper power, sales tax incentives, easy availability of raw material, peaceful labour and proximity to Chandigarh are the main factors which are responsible for the development of this region as the new Mecca for textiles.

A Rs 200 million Export Promotion Park is also being set up at Baddi in an area covering 96 hectares. The state government has already set up 10 Handloom Development Centres with 2,300 looms. Under the project package scheme, 5 projects with a capital investment of over Rs 20 million have been sanctioned for providing training, production and marketing facilities to weavers in Mandi, Kinnaur, Kullu, Kangra and Chamba districts.

The state government has taken a major initiative to strengthen the industrial township of Parwanoo. An entrepreneurs development centre and entrepreneurs training institute are being set up there. An MOU has been signed with NICNET for the computerisation of the entire industrial data. To enlarge the industrial base of the state, several growth centres are being established. One such growth centre is coming up at Sansarpur in Kangra and mini-growth centres at Bhambla in Mandi and Gwalthai in Bilaspur districts are also proposed.