TEA demands knitwear research institute & cargo terminal in Tamil Nadu

Tiruppur, Apr 11 (KNN) The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) is urging the Tamil Nadu government to make certain changes in the state’s textile policy, according to a report in The Hindu Business Line.

The proposed changes includes setting up of a knitwear research institute in Tiruppur and a cargo terminal with international connection at the Coimbatore airport.

K.M. Subramanian, the association president, urged the state government to address issues like housing for labour, raising the overtime cap for the apparel sector, upskilling current employees, transportation subsidies to transport workers to factories, bank Basel norms, and NPA classification in a meeting with the state textiles commissioner.

In addition to the State government capital subsidy, he appealed to the government to establish a licencing system for utilising the ATUF programme subsidy.

TEA pointed out that a knitwear research institute in Tiruppur will aid in the swift expansion of the sector and exports, similarly on the lines of how the Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai helps to product development and innovation for the industry.

At present, in the Tirupur Cluster, there are 1,213 exporting units owned by the TEA. Six lakh people are employed directly by the Tirupur Knitwear Cluster, 60 per cent of whom are women, in addition to another two lakh people who are employed indirectly.

The value of exports of knitwear and woven from Tamil Nadu stood at Rs 38,000 crore in 2021–2022 and is expected to reach Rs 50,000 crore in the next two to three years.

Currently, the biggest challenge the garment industry is facing is due to their heavy reliance on the labour, a severe lack of skilled workers poses the single biggest challenge to its expansion, particularly in labour-intensive clusters like Tiruppur.

As per reports, around 21 per cent of the state’s total exports of goods were ready-made clothing (knitwear and woven garments).  (KNN Bureau)