Maharashtra FM inaugurates a 100% EOU textile plant at Kolhapur

Kolhapur, Oct 2 (UNI) Located at a distance of 500 km from the state capital, Kolhapur is fast emerging as the new industrial hub of the country.

While four textile units are already operational, Kirloskar (an engineering entity) and various other units have also become operational in the recent past, here.

So far, a sum of Rs 4,000 crore have already been invested by various textile and engineering units in the area, officials said.

Inaugurating a 100 percent EOU (Export Orinted Unit), a home textile plant of Indo Count Industries ltd (ICIL) in the Kagal area of the district, Maharashtra Finance Minister, Jayantrao Patil today said that realising the potential of the region, the State Government had chalked out a plan to make available power and other infrastructural required by the industry, at a competitive price. The state government had extended the technology upgradation fund scheme to encourage modernisation of the textile sector, he added.

Lauding the efforts being made by the MD of ICIL, Anil Kumar Jain, the minister praised his foresight for investing Rs 220 crore here and said that he was planning to invest an additional Rs 450 crore in the next phase of contruction of the plant.

However, Mr Patil noted that competitiveness was very important to face the international market. He said that the state government's focus was now on the development of minor ports at Vijaydurg and Diggy so as to facilitate the exporters to export their products to the international markets without any difficulty.

Speaking on the occasion Minister of State for dairy development, Hasan Mushrif said that the state government was ready to extend all possible support to the investors to set-up their plants in the region.

The MD of ICIL, Mr Anil Kumar Jain said that the new textile plant was likely to provide direct employment to around 3,000 persons, and the figure may multiply five-fold if one were to account for indirect employment. Therefore, he urged the State Government to provide basic infrastrucre facilities to the plant.

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