The Indian government recently approved setting up of a common facility centre (CFC) to support power loom units in Palladam and Somanur areas of Tamil Nadu. The facility would help power loom owners produce value-added weaving products without depending on master weavers always. The Palladam Powerloom Weavers Cluster Pvt Ltd has been formed to run the CFC.
More than two lakh power loom units functioning in Palladam and Somanur areas in Tirupur and Coimbatore districts respectively undertake job works from master weavers.
The approval was granted at the 52nd steering committee meeting of the micro small enterprises-cluster development programme (MSE-CDP) conducted by the ministry of MSME in New Delhi, according to a report in a top English-language newspaper.
The Rs. 17.62-crore centre would come up at Kethanur, where the power loom owners association had purchased four acres for the purpose. While the central government would fund 67 per cent of the cost, the state government and the power loom units would bear 10 per cent and 23 per cent of the cost respectively.
As each power loom unit could not separately set up facilities for sizing, bleaching, printing and stitching, it could not add value to the produced fabrics. But with the CFC, the units would have such facilities and it would help them develop their own weaving products, both apparel and home textiles, and market them,” said M Balasubramaniam, secretary of the Tirupur-Coimbatore districts’ powerloom owners association, who was also managing director of the Palladam Powerloom Weavers Cluster.
The plan is to take at least 100 power loom units on board, and so far, 54 have joined the cluster.
