Palladam High-Tech Weaving Park to be operational by December

Coimbatore: The Rs 250-crore Palladam High-Tech Weaving Park (PHWP), promoted by the decentralised powerloom weavers in this district, is expected to start operation by December this year.

All the civil construction work involving the 105 loom-sheds and common facilities being created in the park will be completed by September as per schedule, according to Mr Senthil Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of PHWP, the special purpose vehicle company for the park promotion.

The PHWP, billed as the first to take off among the textile parks cleared under the fast-track scheme of integrated textile parks (SITPs), will have 730 high-efficiency modern looms installed in a single cluster at the time of completion.

A section of the investors participating in the PHWP project have already finalised their choice of machinery and placed orders for the same with manufacturers.

About one-third of the weaving machines will be of airjet loom models (250 numbers) to be newly imported, and orders for these have been placed already, Mr Senthil Kumar said at a function to mark the laying of foundation for the common facility blocks at the PHWP premises on Wednesday near Coimbatore

. The delivery and installation of the first batch of weaving machines at the park would commence by October, he said.

The promoters of PHWP have also finalised plans for setting up a modern sizing plant, and a pre-weaving facility, which is being installed as part of the common facilities.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), project management consultants for the PHWP, has, in association with SIDBI, extended a Rs 10-crore bridge-loan and both the institutions have together with a consortium of bankers tied up a term loan of Rs 27 crore to facilitate the early take-off of the park project.

Mr Ravi Parthasarathy, Chairman of IL&FS, said the demand for such textile parks projects was starkly felt with the government already conceding establishment of 25 such parks. By being the first one to be completed, PHWP has become the template for clearance of other such park proposals. The proposed completion of PHWP's civil works would set the pace for other SITP projects.

The Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, Mr Sudripta Roy, who laid the foundation stone for the common facility blocks, advised investors not to delay finalising the plant and machinery, considering that the deadline for the textile technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS), which offers concessional project financing including capital goods, will be March 31, 2007.