Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Stretching beyond boundaries

M. Soundariya Preetha

COIMBATORE: Businesses grow, the city expands and borders blur. This is what this region is witnessing now.

Be it Coimbatore or Tirupur, a growing number of textile units are coming up on the outskirts, making it a big textile hub.

It all began in the early 1990s. With the Government announcing incentives for industries coming up in the backward areas, factories were started in rural areas. Now, it is more than that. Textile units plan huge production capacities. This means need for more land to set up the facilities.

The city is fast expanding, and vast tracks of land and labour available on the outskirts at low prices are some of the reasons for more units coming up outside the city, says C.R. Ananda Krishnan, Executive Director, KPR Mill.

"If we go away from `concentrated' places, getting workers is easy," says Southern India Mills' Association chairman S.V. Arumugam.

For instance, workers come from villages within a 50-km radius to garment factories at Tirupur. Many units arrange for their transport. Now, they prefer setting up industries in rural areas, he points out. "This will be the trend in future too."

K.G. Jaganathan, Secretary, Coimbatore District Mill Workers' Union (AITUC), says this also provides job opportunities for rural workforce. By working in a factory in the vicinity of their village, monthly expenses and travel-related stress are reduced. Thus, a worker can even put in longer hours.

In this entrepreneurial district, rural places that have proper infrastructure are seeing more factories. The industries have their wage cost under control and contribute to the growth of these places. And, for the workers, they find job opportunities in their area (The New Anna Marumalarchi Scheme has helped to set up 35 agro-based units in the district).

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