GUNTUR: The sobriquet, Manchester of South, may have been tagged to Southern City of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, but considering the number of new mills being grounded in the district, Guntur may soon end up as a serious rival.

A windfall of investment is set to stream into the district, with local entrepreneurs evincing a keen interest in setting up of new spinning and ginning mills. As many as 33 new spinning mills have been set up over the last six months with an investment of over Rs.500 crore. District Industries Centre General Manager B. Trimurthulu said that applications seeking permission to start another 23 mills with an estimated 4 lakh spinning mills were on the pipeline.

Investments

Among the factors that spurred massive investments in the spinning mills sector, were the availability of raw material, with cotton cultivated in 4.45 lakh acres, quality of the yarn, of which more than 80 per cent is exported and the availability of cheaper work force.

The Guntur-Chilakaluripet National Highway No. 5 is dotted with plenty of spinning mills and investors were also eyeing lands at Medikonduru, Perecharla, Chebrolu and Tenali.

Each spinning mill, with an installed capacity of 13,000 spindles, is sure to generate 4.82 metric tonnes of cotton daily. Use of latest machinery in the spinning mills had boosted the export potential of cotton, he said.

With the prospects of setting of integrated mills with provisions for, dyeing, weaving and fabrication of colours, local consumption of cotton is expected to rise.

With each spinning mill having a capacity to employ 500 persons, there is a lot of potential for employment generation.

Keeping in view of the rise in demand, the department of Youth affairs conducted a massive recruitment drive to employ 10,000 persons, both in the technical and non-technical categories.

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