The Government has decided to develop an integrated textile park during the current plan period and set up an incubation centre in the campus of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to provide common services and facilities required for manufacturing textile and handloom products.

The decision was taken recently when Union Secretary of Textiles Sanjay Kumar Panda was on a visit to the State of Odisha.

The state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha Limited (IDCO) has also been asked to identify suitable land for development of garment industry clusters and parks.

Since large chunk of Government land is available near Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Idco has requested Khurda district administration to identify whether the land is available for requisition for the proposed textile park.

Apart from integrated textile parks, the Centre is providing subsidized credit for technological upgradation of existing units, integrated skill development of unskilled workforce and integrated processing development for resolving the issues faced by textile processing units.

While the Centre launched the ITP scheme in 2005, Odisha is yet to avail the facility. Though several proposals were sent to Ministry of Textiles (MoT), those never met the eligibility criteria of the Centre.

According to the ITP scheme, the Centre’s support by way of grant or equity will be limited to 40 percent of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 40 crore for the park.

Sources in the Textiles and Handloom Department said that the sector employs more than 50,600 people with an investment of only Rs 134 crore.

The State has around 26 million people in the age group of 15 to 60 from among which many can be profitably engaged in the sector.