If the chief minister’s designs are successful, Jharkhand may become the next textile hub.
Raghubar Das on Sunday inaugurated Phase I of a shirt factory of Arvind Limited in Rampur under Namkum block of Ranchi district and performed bhumipujan of Phase II of another garments unit near the same site with the promise of more industries in the offing.
“The textile sector offers maximum employment. We want to promote textiles and have drafted a policy under which factories will earn sops. The state will offer a subsidy of Rs 6,000 per woman employed by a unit and the same per male employee will be Rs 5,000. A textile park in the state is also on the anvil,” Das said.
The Arvind factory, headquartered in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, sprawls over 60,000 square feet near Ring Road. At present, the company has invested Rs 100 crore, but has plans to increase the same to Rs 300 crore. It produces textiles for brands like Aero, Flying Machine, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and US Polo Assn, besides others.
Those present at Sunday’s launch included Khijri MLA Ram Kumar Pahan, principal secretary to CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal, state industry secretary K. Ravi Kumar and industry director Jishan Kanwar, and executive director of Arvind Mills Kunil Lal Bhai and its chief executive officer Shushil Kaul.
After Momentum Jharkhand in February 2017, foundations were laid for as many as 30 textile companies. Of them, three — Orient Craft, Kishore Export and Siddhi Tech — have already started production, Das told his audience.
“The factory inaugurated today (Sunday) is the fourth. It will give immediate jobs to 2,000 people. In the second phase, 6,000 more will get employment. The remaining 26 companies have plans to invest Rs 1,367 crore and will provide employment to 26,000 people,” the CM said.
Das elaborated why Jharkhand has a fair chance of becoming a textile destination. “Out of 3,700MT tussar silk produced in the country, Jharkhand’s contribution is 2,600MT. Our tussar is exported to the US, the UK, Australia, Germany and Switzerland,” he said.
