India - Silk park planned at Kancheepuram

Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said the government would consider setting up of an integrated textile park exclusively for the silk industry at Kancheepuram.

He gave the assurance when an eight-member delegation of the Kancheepuram silk industry, led by Member of Parliament representing Kancheepuram P.Viswanathan. The government has so far sanctioned 40 textile parks in different parts of the country and 15 more are in the pipeline.

Of the sanctioned parks, 10 are in Maharashtra, seven in Gujarat, six each in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, four in Rajasthan and two each in Punjab and West Bengal and one each in Karnataka, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.

The parks are intended to provide the industry with world-class infrastructure to meet international environmental and social standards and each would normally have 50 units.

India - Road projects to create a Rs.2,128-crore market for geotech industry by 2012 news:

Major beneficiaries: SEL Manufacturing Company Ltd and ZENITH FIBRES LTD.

SEL Manufacturing Company Ltd is setting up a Technical Textile Park in the State of Himachal Pradesh for which concerned SPV has applied for the approvals from the Ministry of Textiles of Government of India for sanctioning the Project under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP).

The said project would be one shop solution for entire manufacturing process for the technical textile products which include hygiene products like wipes, diapers, sanitary napkins, panty shields and surgical clothing i.e. gloves, masks, gowns etc. The project will be setup with an Overall investment of app Rs.500.00 Crores and would cover an area of 100 acres (approx.) of land and is expected to generate Employment for 10000 people (approx).

The textile ministry expects the national highway projects and the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) together to give a potential market of Rs2,128-crore for the country's geotech industry.

The geotech industry, which includes geo textiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geocomposites, etc, will have a business potential of Rs1,260 crore in the upgradtion of the 21,000km national highway, Bhupendra Singh, joint secretary in the ministry of textiles, said in New Delhi today.

The country has a road network of 33,00,000 km, of which national highways, state highways and expressways account for 70,548, 131,98 km and 200 km, respectively, he told a conference on geotextiles. Under the Bharat Nirman component of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 24,000 km of roads will be laid in 2009-10 and Geotech will have a market potential Rs868 crore, Singh said.

He said the government has proposed spending to the tune of Rs3,76,500 crore ($78.5 billion) for development of road infrastructure during the 11th Plan period and the government expects the technical textile industry to shape up to exploit the potential.

Sudripta Roy, secretary-general of the International Jute Study Group (IJSG), said there is a need to maintain the jute supply chain, if the industry is to exploit the opportunity thrown up by increased global awareness about environmental sustainability.