Tamil Nadu - Erode   

100 acre in proposed textile town have no takers

R. Sundaram

A few portions of the land converted into house sites

LYING VACANT: The site meant for textile town in Ramanathapuram Pudur near Erode. - Photo: M. Govarthan

ERODE: The 100-acre land at Suriampalayam owned by the Erode Handloom Cloth Merchants Association and earmarked for setting up a textile town has been lying idle for the last 25 years.

The 36,000 square feet land was purchased in 1980 from Suriampalayam Panchayat. A few portions of the land were converted into house sites.

The town has over 1,000 textile producers manufacturing 10 million metres of textile per day. Over a lakh of people are directly employed.

Over 5,000 textile merchants have established shops and presently these are functioning in congested Eswaran Koil Street, Tiruvenkatasamy Street, NMS compound, Fort area, Hunumandarayan Koil Street, old Government Hospital Compound and other areas. Hundreds of lorries are engaged in loading and unloading these goods. This has led to heavy traffic congestion and frequent accidents.

To bring an end to this problem, the association decided to set up a town exclusively for textiles. Land was purchased and Canara Bank agreed to give loan to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh each for construction of buildings. But only one or two persons have constructed the buildings and some have sold the sites.

The association president, R.S. Nataraja Mudaliar, said the association was ready to help the merchants to construct shops-cum-residences. "We have also approached the bank for loan," Mr Mudaliar said.

He said if the textile shops were located in the Suriampalayam area, traffic congestion would be reduced to a considerable extent in Erode.

Mr. Mudaliar said at present the market was functioning in a congested area every Tuesday.

If the merchants are willing to construct their shops and houses in Suriampalayam, the weekly textile shandy can be shifted to this area. He said a Surat-model shandy market could also be established.

He said round-the-clock water supply was available in Suriampalayam and it was just seven km from Erode and frequent bus facilities too were available.

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