A VIEW of industrial sheds at the Perundurai SIPCOT

Buoyed by demands kicked up by new investment proposals from textile processors, the massive State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT)-controlled Industrial Growth Centre at Perundurai in the neighbouring Erode district is seeking to expand its boundary.

It plans to acquire an additional 1,212 acres of land to accommodate more industrial sheds.

The Perundurai SIPCOT industrial estate, as it is called, is said to have identified the required contiguous lands falling under the revenue villages next to its existing 2,600-acre industrial estate (called Growth Centre) and has written to the Government regarding land acquisition.

The proposal is said to be under the scrutiny of the Erode district administration, the nodal agency for land development, sources in the industries functioning in the Perundurai industrial estate said.

Industry demand

The administration at the Perundurai estate is of late under pressure from industries to allot more industrial land inside its premises for their new projects/unit expansion. . This has necessitated the Corporation to consider enlarging it.

The industrial estate is located in the midst of vibrant textile manufacturing/processing centres such as Erode, Karur and Tirupur, which have also emerged as major outsourcing destinations for global textile importers.

Lately, the need for developed industrial plots, particularly those suitable for undertaking wet-processing, is driving investors of new textile projects towards the Perundurai estate, mainly due to its infrastructure facilities.

Pull factor

The new environmental standards that compel the textile wet-processors to have a minimum 5-6 acres of land buffer for setting up `0' discharge is another crucial factor for the investors pitching for the Perundurai project.

The necessary volume of industrial water required for wet-processing being made available inside the estate have also enticed textile companies.

The project, which has a provision to supply 18 million litres of industrial water per day for the units located in the estate, is also negotiating with the private water infrastructure company, New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Ltd, to procure another 10 million litres a day,considering the future demands and the potential to attract more textile wet processing units.

Units' profile

That the Perundurai estate is turning out to be a premier textile processing zone in the region is revealed in the profile of the units that have so far set up operations.

Of the 140 sheds already allotted (67 have started to function), 84 units are textile/textile related (32 have started operations) and 19 other textile companies are in the process of setting up their plants, the sources said.

Big tickets

Some of the big textile tickets that have their production/processing units located in the Perundurai estate include Gangotri Textiles, KG group, KPR Mills, Vardhaman/Mahaveer group, S P Apparels, Premier and Amorjyoti.

Of the 1,820 acres of allottable area with SIPCOT, a little more than 1,140 acres have been given to the industries.

After adjusting the lands needed for shopping and other commercial use, SIPCOT is said to be left with hardly 240 acres of land for industries.

Hence the urgency for promoters of the estate to go for new land acquisitions.