Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) expressed a big relief over the National Green Tribunal’s order on lifting the ban on the operation of textile units in Rajasthan.

In May, the NGT bench of Jodhpur had ordered the closure of 739 textile units in Balotra and its surrounding areas of Jasol, Bithuja in Rajasthan, for non-adherence to norms laid down by Pollution Control Board.

The weaving clusters in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, accounting to over 70 percent of the powerlooms in the country and also the handloom clusters which were utilizing the dyeing facilities in Rajasthan were seriously affected consequent to the closure of dyeing units in Rajasthan. This led to piling up of fabric stocks and affected the production flow across the value chain.

The spinning sector which had been already suffering due to reduced exports got affected seriously resulting in lower capacity utilization and crashed yarn prices, resulting in cash losses.

The SIMA chairman M Senthilkumar said that the NGT, in its order has specified certain conditions to be fulfilled by the textile units such as installation of primary treatment plant, payment of security deposit ranging from Rs 2-5 lakh per unit, connecting all dyeing units to the Common Effluent Treatment Plant, fixing of meter in the borewell and flow meter for the water pipeline and disposing the sledge in specified areas. The NGT has also directed the Rajasthan Pollution Control Board to renew the consent immediately after fulfilling the conditions.

Senthilkumar hopes the textile industry would revive on a fast track immediately after Deepavali and perform well from the New Year, as majority of the dyeing units are prepared to reopen the units, the problems would come to an end very soon. This has already given a good signal for improvement in the yarn market.