The Union Textiles Ministry has issued the notification for setting up of seven PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks with a total outlay of ₹4,445 crore to be disbursed over five years specifying that these will be set up at both greenfield and brownfield sites located in different willing States.

The MITRA Scheme was first announced in the budget speech of 2021-22 by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. Through the scheme, seven mega textile parks are proposed to be set up in the next three years which would have world class infrastructure with plug and play facilities to encourage exports. It seeks to develop integrated large scale and modern industrial infrastructure facility for the entire value-chain of the textile industry.

The PM MITRA scheme was approved by the Cabinet earlier this month.

“Proposals of States having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcel of 1,000+ acres along with other textiles related facilities & ecosystem are welcome,” according to an official release issued by the Textile Ministry on Friday.

For a greenfield PM MITRA park, the Centre’s development capital support will be 30 per cent of the project cost, with a cap of ₹500 crore. For brownfield sites, after assessment, development capital support of 30 per cent of project cost of balance infrastructure and other support facilities to be developed will be extended. The limit has been set at ₹ 200 crore.

Mega Textile Parks

Each park will come up in at least 1,000 acre land with ready nearby availability of raw material, fully-equipped infrastructure including port, road and rail connectivity, water and power availability etc.

The mega textile parks are expected to emerge as manufacturing hubs, create employment, create global champions and enable access to state of the art textile technology.

The location for the seven mega textile parks would be selected using the “Challenge Method”

What is the Challenge Method?

Under the Challenge Method, the centre would float an expression of interest (EOI) for which the states should apply. For the application, the states would have to submit certain documents according to the prescribed format which the centre would evaluate as per the criteria. A portal would be developed to enable this procedure.

The criteria would include availability of facilities such as land, labour, raw materials, infrastructure amenities, road and railway connectivity, labour laws and industrial policies. The only prerequisite to apply for the scheme would be availability of 1000 acre land.

The proposals of different states would be pitted against each other and would be given points. Proposals that receive the highest points would be selected for this scheme.