Bengal to set up about 2,500 high-end looms

Kolkata: Aiming to make Bengal self-sufficient in producing fabric needed to stitch uniform for school goers, the Mamata Banerjee government targets setting up of at least 2,500 high end looms across the state to meet the annual requirement of around 6 crore metres fabric.

Already 350 entrepreneurs, who have the high-end machines at their units, have entered into agreement with the state government and there are another 200 in the pipeline. Owners of these 200 existing power loom units have informed the state government that they have already taken the move to set up these looms needed to weave fabric for suiting and shirting.

There are over 15,000 power looms in the state. But maximum of these have the infrastructure to weave only sarees and dhoti. So there is now requirement to set up high-end looms, which could be rapier looms or even of better categories.

A senior officer of the state government said the target is to ensure that at least 2,500 looms with high-end machineries get set up in Bengal in next two years. It would help us to meet the demand of 6 crore metres of fabric needed annually to stitch uniforms of school goers.

MSME minister Chandranath Sinha said: "Our aim is to upgrade and utilise the existing infrastructure of our state to produce the needed fabric as it would improve Bengal's economy besides making it self sufficient".

The state Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles (MSME and T) department, on behalf of the government, is entering into an agreement with the entrepreneurs who are interested in weaving the fabric for school uniforms. The reason being it is the state government only that provides the thread to these units to weave the fabric. The state government is also setting up 10 "Suto Hubs (thread hub)" across the state. Initially, two are coming up including one at Purbasthali in East Burdwan while the second "suto hub" is coming up in Cooch Behar.

The Mamata Banerjee government every year provides free-of-cost uniforms to students of class I to VIII in state-run and aided schools. In the absence of infrastructure to produce 6 crore metre fabrics to stitch school uniforms, it had to be brought from Uttar Pradesh with production of only one crore metre Tamralipta and Kangshabati mills in Bengal.