The Government has decided not to ‘pre-judge’ the suitability of any location for the proposed Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) scheme, under which seven parks will be set up in the country.
Textiles Secretary UP Singh said that the Ministry of Textiles (MoT) will follow a ‘challenge method’ to select states for the MITRA scheme.
He said that there are more takers for the scheme as some states want two or three such parks and because of that ‘Government will follow a challenge method to select states’.
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Tamil Nadu have expressed interest in setting up MITRA parks. Apart from 1,000 acre land for one such park, the ministry will look at some important things like nearby availability of raw material, all kinds of infrastructure including port, road and rail connectivity, water and power availability, and incentives of states, amongst others.
According to an official, states will have to apply for the scheme and Government will float expression of interest (EoI). The Mot will seek documents as per a format and then will do evaluation. A portal will also be developed for that.
The Government has proposed the MITRA scheme to enable the textile industry to become globally competitive, attract large investments and boost employment generation and exports.
The Secretary has said that by the end of September, detailed guidelines will be issued for production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
He said that, ‘It is a fund limited scheme. We are expecting more people to come forward and for that, we are putting certain criteria. If the MoT will get more applications, above the budgetary allocation of Rs. 10,683 crore, it will select the companies based on this criterion.
