Even as Yogi cabinet ministers and government officials have embarked upon foreign visits to attract investors ahead of the Global Investors Summit (GIS) slated in February, the textile department has already received 191 proposals amounting to over Rs 6,000 crore.
Giving this information to TOI, special secretary, textile and handloom industry, Sheshmani Pandey said that these proposals have been vetted and now memorandums of understanding (MoUs) would be signed with the parties during the Global Investor Summit.
Interestingly, the textile industry is second after the agriculture sector when it comes to generating employment. Adding to this, UP is the third highest fabric producing state in India, producing 13.24% of the national production.
The state already has around 1,99,000 handlooms and about five lakh powerlooms. In the last fiscal, export of textile and apparel from the state was valued at around Rs 20,000 crore, including carpets and other textile floor coverings.
Coming to employment generation, Pandey said that Mirzapur-Bhadohi is the largest handmade carpet weaving cluster, engaging around 3.2 million people in the industry.
Bhadohi employs 22 lakh rural artisans in its export-oriented units. To attract more investment towards the textile industry, the department has come up with a focussed and attractive textile policy that has a special thrust on promoting youths of the state, Pandey further said.
Coming back to the intent received by the department, Pandey said that the proposals if implemented in the state would generate around 72,000 jobs. He also said that new proposals are being received by the department almost every day.
Elaborating on the department’s effort, Pandey said that in a bid to attract more investors, the department, besides coming up with attractive textile policy, has also expedited its bid to bring PM MITRA Park on Lucknow-Hardoi highway near the state capital. A proposal about PM-MITRA park has already been sent to the Central government, he said and added that a land bank of around 260 acres has also been identified. The land chunk is near Village Atari in Malihabad block of Lucknow district.
Interestingly, the Central government has decided to establish 8 PM-MITRA Park throughout the country. For this, around 13 proposals have been received by the Central government. It is for this reason that the UP government is pressing its case hard before the Union government in a bid to get PM-MITRA Park. All these efforts are sure to give positive results, Pandey added.
