The Hindu : Kerala News : Central aid for tile consortium

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Saturday, Sep 16, 2006
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Kerala

Central aid for tile consortium

T. Ramavarman

THRISSUR: Development Commissioner of Small-Scale Industries Jawahar Sircar has said that the Centre will sanction Rs.4.7 crore to the consortium of tile industries being set up at Velakkode near Mundur in the district.

The consortium, Terra Tile Consortium (TTC), is being formed by about 20 tile manufacturers in the district. It aims at setting up common facilities for processing raw clay and testing the quality of finished products with technological support from the Italian firm Manfredini and Schianchi.

Talking to The Hindu after a visit to the TTC on Friday, Mr. Sircar said the amount would be directed through the State Government. ``We can help a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of this nature only through the State Government because we don't have the machinery to monitor its working. So we will sanction the amount to the State Government, which in turn will reach it to the consortium.''

Work almost over

When contacted, TTC managing director K.K. Abdul Jaleel said the work on the consortium was almost over. ``We should be able to launch production immediately after the money is sanctioned.'' Pointing out that paucity of raw materials was a major cause of the crisis in the tile industry, TTC vice-chairman D. Ananthasubramaniam said the new facility would enable manufacturers to use inferior quality clay, which in turn would reduce dependence on paddy fields for clay-mining.

Mr. Jaleel said that with the new technology from Italy it was possible to use 40 per cent non-plastic clay, now considered as waste by tile units, for production of different variety of tiles. The clay sample had been taken to Italy and the products made out of it tested there. The tests proved that the tiles were of very high quality,

Mr. Ananthasubramaniam said when the TTC started functioning, it would be possible for the tile units to collectively take large areas of land on lease for clay-mining. This will optimise the cost of raw materials.

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