KSIC awaits govt nod on spun silk yarn unit

Bangalore, Dec 12 (UNI) Saddled with a huge accumulated loss of Rs 49 crore, the state-owned Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC), makers of the world famous Mysore Silk Sarees, is awaiting government nod to privatise its spun silk yarn reeling unit in Chennapatna in Bangalore Rural District.

KSIC Managing Director P Vijayan told UNI the proposal had already been submitted to the government.

Set up during a World Bank-aided project in the 1980s with Japanese assistance, the spun silk yarn unit had been reeling under severe loss due to non availability and high cost of silk waste, a raw material.

Apart from the weaving unit in Mysore, KSIC was currently managing only a filature in Sidlaghatta and was perhaps the only silk unit in the country to produce silk fabrics from the cocoon stage.

Awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) mark in 2005 for Mysore Silk, KSIC is contemplating embossing the GI Mark in all its fabrics to ensure its genuineness, he said.

KSIC was expecting a turnover of Rs 45 crore for the current fiscal, up from Rs 41 crore last year. Only during the last couple of years it had turned profitable.

Mr Vijayan said one of the reasons for the huge accumulated loss was the VRS provided to over 1,000 employees.

He said deviating from sarees, the company planned to go in for increasing production of dress material to about 20 per cent of its total production from the current five per cent.

KSIC had attracted 535 vintage sarees for its recent vintage saree contest, including those woven way back in 1942. The top prize of Rs 20,000 went to a Onion Pink Saree made between 1948-49.

UNI