Yemmiganur Textile Park Back In Focus
To start with, the government gave 100 acres of land for the project during the Telugu Desam rule between 2014 and 2019.
Kurnool:The Textile Park planned for Yemmiganur has been stuck on paper for ten years due to government delays, but there now are signs of progress.
To start with, the government gave 100 acres of land for the project during the Telugu Desam rule between 2014 and 2019. The project was dropped by the YSRC government and it used this land for the poor people's housing.
Currently, 77 acres at Banavasi farm have been set aside for the project. The land is covered with bushes and thorns as nobody took care of it.
BC welfare minister S Savitha visited the area months ago and promised local leaders that the project would be taken forward and completed quickly. She asked the district collector to give the same land back for the textile park.
Further, industries minister TG Bharath got `7 crore sanctioned in May this year to build a large textile park on this land. Workers are now clearing the Banavasi farmland to start construction. Out of the 77 acres, 25 acres would be given to weavers. The remaining 50 acres would be handed over to investors to set up their businesses.
Yemmiganurhad nearly 3,000 active weavers, of whom only 250-300 are left now. The government didn't help them and the weavers couldn't upgrade their equipment. Traditional weavers still use old hand-operated machines, which make their work slow. Their handmade clothes cost more than machine-made clothes. People prefer cheaper machine-made materials.
Now, many weavers have unsold clothed piled up at their homes.
In a recent development, investors from Karnataka proposed to set up textile businesses in Andhra Pradesh. AP has liberal policies for businesses. Officials proposed Yemmiganur for an integrated textile park that would increase cloth production and exports, making Kurnool a major textile hub.
The plan is to create a zone where both weavers and industries can work together, which could help revive the textile industry in Yemmiganur and provide livelihood for local weavers and workers.
A senior official from the department of handlooms and textiles said he state government is speeding up the textile park activities and soon it would become a reality.