The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Tirupur knitwear complex to generate wind power

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tirupur knitwear complex to generate wind power

By M. Gunasekaran

TIRUPUR, JAN. 15. With a March 2005 deadline fixed by the Union Textiles Ministry while sanctioning a Rs. 12.25-crore grant, the Tirupur Export Knitwear Industrial Complex (TEKIC) is all set to start its own wind power generation plants. The plants will provide power to the units at a lower cost.

Under the Rs. 24.5 crore project, TEKIC will install eight wind power generation units at Sanganeri in Kanyakumari district with a production capacity of 140 lakhs units per annum. The power will be wheeled through the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board grid to the complex at Tirupur, from where it will be distributed to all the units.

A team of industrialists led by the TEKIC president and managing director, Ahill S. Rathnasamy, visited the site today.

The Union Government sanctioned the grant under the Textile Centre Infrastructure Development Scheme.

The installation and maintenance work has been entrusted to Vestas RRB India Limited on a turnkey basis, including arrangements for the transfer of power to the TNEB grid.

An initial payment of Rs. 2 crores has been made by the TEKIC and the State Bank of Mysore and SIDBI has agreed to finance the project.

TEKIC, housing 189 industrial sheds manufacturing knitwear fabric, hosiery garments, labels and packing materials is spread over 100 acres.

The complex employs nearly 10,000 people and earns Rs.650 crores per annum in foreign exchange.

Uninterrupted supply

After the project is completed, individual units will surrender their low-tension connections and the complex will obtain one high-tension line, from which power will be distributed to the sheds.

Underground cables will be laid to ensure quality supply and there will be a computerised monitoring system.

"Within a fortnight, the installation will begin. The project will be completed within two months. We will be able to provide wind power to the member units before March 15," Ahill Rathnasamy told The Hindu .

Lower cost

"This is first project in India in which an industrial complex will be generating and using wind power. Our member units can avail power at a cost of around Rs.2.50 to Rs. 2.75 per unit, while TNEB provides power at Rs. 4.70 per unit," he said.

The cost competitiveness of the units will improve once the project was implemented, he added.

Nearly forty units were sick, and many others struggling, in the complex. This would give them a chance to recover, he said.

The objective of the project is to provide clean and quality power with required voltage to all units at internationally competitive cost. "Wind power is the best, non-polluting and cheapest source of power in the country.

The project will give an immense boost to the exporters to face the global challenges ahead," said A. Sakthivel, the chairman of the project and president of the Tirupur Exporters Association.

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