The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of 7 Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (MITRA) parks with a total outlay of Rs 4,445 crore for five years to position India strongly on the global textile map. PM MITRA parks were announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22. The parks will be set up at Greenfield or brownfield sites located in different willing States. 

Proposals of State governments having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcels of 1,000-plus acres, along with other textile-related facilities and ecosystem are welcome, an official release has said. Giving details about the decision taken at the Cabinet meeting, Textile Minister Piyush Goyal said that 10 States had already shown interest in setting up the parks. The States are Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. 

Sites for the park will be selected by a “Challenge Method” based on objective criteria. Mr Goyal said that the parks would create direct employment for 7 lakh people and indirect employment for 14 lakh. 

The parks will offer an opportunity to create an integrated textile value chain right from spinning, weaving, processing, dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location. An integrated textile value chain at one location will also reduce the logistics cost of the industry. 

Maximum Development Capital Support (DCS) of Rs 500 crore to all greenfield parks and a maximum of Rs 200 crore to brownfield ones will be provided for development of common infrastructure (30 per cent of the project cost). Also, Rs 300 crore of Competitiveness Incentive Support (CIS) will be provided to each park for the early establishment of textile manufacturing units. Under PM MITRA, 50 per cent of the area will be developed for pure manufacturing activity, 20 per cent area for utilities and 10 per cent of the area for commercial development. 

The release further said that the parks would be developed by a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will be owned by the State government and the Central government in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode.