Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the state has plans to establish a big textile park which would become a one-point centre for all textile related activities.

Addressing a congregation of people belonging to the Sourashtra community in Tamil Nadu here, Modi said the proposed park would have all activities of the textile industry, including fibre, fabric, fashioning and export.

Modi claimed Gujarat had made big strides under his leadership so much as that it had become the bench mark for measuring growth in the country.

Gujarat had achieved 14 per cent growth rate compared to the country's rate of seven per cent now. The state's 1,600 km coastline with its 42 ports is dealing with more than 80 per cent of the cargo of the country.

The Kutch region, regarded as a backward region in the past, would soon become the "Singapore of India" as it was experiencing a lot of developmental activities, he said.

Kutch region had always shown negative growth with its the population declining on an yearly basis 50 years ago. Even the people belonging to the Sourashtra community, who came to Madurai nearly 500 years ago, may have come from this region.

But after the earthquake that shook Kutch seven years ago, the region had grown by leaps and bounds and was poised to become the Singapore of India soon, Modi said.

Gujarat which produced 23 lakh cotton bales during 2000-07 had increased the production manifold to 1.23 crore in 2007-08 due to developments carried out in the sector, he said.

He called upon the people from the Sourashtra community to come and invest in the state and also bring their children on regular tours to the region to reorient them with their roots, he said.

Source: The Hindu