Govt informs RS NTC mills land sold to eligible highest bidders

New Delhi, July 26 (UNI) The Government today informed the Rajya Sabha that as per the Integrated Development Scheme (IDS) approved by the Government of Maharashtra for seven mills, National Textiles Corpn (NTC) has sold the land of five mills in Mumbai during 2005 to the highest bidders irrespective of their business background, subject to qualifying the eligibility criteria as per the tender document.

Replying to a question, Minister of State for Textiles E V K S Elangovan said it has been decided to surrender the remaining 2 mills, namely Indu Mill No 2 and 3 and New Hind Textile Mills to Brihan Mumbai Corpn (BMC) and Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) respectively, as one-third share each for BMC (for Recreation Ground/Open Greens), and one-third share for MHADA (for mill worker housing / public housing) as per the requirement of Development Control Regulations applicable in Mumbai.

The minister also clarified that it is upto the successful bidder to chalk out a detailed development plan and get the same approved from the competent authority.

In reply to another question, Mr Elangovan said that a proposal to set up at least one yarn depot in each handloom cluster having 1000 looms or at places near the handloom clusters is under consideration.

The general thrust of the handloom sector schemes is to provide support for product diversification, design and skill upgradation and market access to the handloom weavers to augment their livelihood and increase their earnings.

On the Textile Parks, Mr Elangovan said that Government has launched the 'Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP)' to provide the textile industry with world-class infrastructure facilities for setting up their textile units.

The scheme is based on Public-Public-Partnership (PPP) and would facilitate textile units to meet international standards. Industry Associations/Group of Entrepreneurs would be the main promoters of the Integrated Textile Parks (ITP), he added.

The number of entrepreneurs in each ITP varies from project to project.

So far, 26 projects have been approved under the SITP, including six each in Gujarat and Maharashtra, five in Tamil Nadu, four in Andhra Pradesh, two in Rajasthan and one each in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The minister also informed that estimated employment generation in the 26 parks approved is around 5.29 lakh (1.93 lakh direct and 3.36 lakh indirect).

Mr Elangovan, however, denied that there was any delay or holding up of funds amounting to Rs 250 crore under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS).

UNI BBS CS KN1408