Auto companies apart, Chennai may soon become the hot spot of technical textile units.
The Textiles Ministry has agreed to part-fund the setting up of the Rs 117.07 crore Pallavada Technical Textiles Park, proposed along the NH5 route, near Gummidipoondi.
The centre, under the Technology Mission on Technical Textiles scheme, will be providing a grant to the tune of 9 per cent of the total project cost to a maximum of `9 crore to the state government for the early commissioning of the park.
Technical textiles industry is an emerging area and refers to textile products made for non-aesthetic purposes like nylon air bags, seat covers, parachute (mobiltech), furniture fabrics and floor and wall covering (hometech), concrete an façade foundation, proofing material (buildtech) and textiles for crop protection (agrotech).
The Pallavada park, to be built in an area of 72 acres in Tiruvallur district, is expected to have 14 mobiltech units, 5 buildtech units, 2 agrotech units and 6 hometech units along with facilities for R&D and quality testing labs.
The park is pegged to attract an investment to the tune of Rs 335.77 crore and is expected to provide direct employment to over 26,300 people in and around the area.
With the capacity to achieve an annual growth of over 20 per cent and market size estimated to grow from $13 billion to $36 billion by 2016-17, technical textiles offer huge opportunities for local consumption and exports.
Considering this, the combined sales turnover of all units in the park is estimated to aggregate to Rs 394 crores per annum.
So far, Tamil Nadu has received a total grant of Rs 132.57 crore from the centre for eight textile parks spread across the state.
Pallavada apart, the centre has also sanctioned its grant for one more integrated park at a cost of Rs 126 crore in Bagalur in Krishnagiri district.
However, errant power supply continues to be the key concern of most textile units in the state.