The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Call to revive rope-making units in Valathur

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Call to revive rope-making units in Valathur

Special Correspondent

Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

Intriguing work: Vellore Collector Dharmendra Pratap Yadav witnessing a demonstration of an electrical rope-making unit during an awareness programme at Gudiyatham on Wednesday. —

GUDIYATHAM: Vellore Collector Dharmendra Pratap Yadav has urged self-help groups in Valathur near Gudiyatham to revive the idle rope-making units, which were set up with loans from banks and subsidy from the Coir Board to revive the units and produce value-added products from coir.

He was inaugurating an awareness programme on ‘Manufacture of value-added products from coir’ under the Scheme Fund for Rejuvenation of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) organised by the District Industries Centre (DIC), Vellore, and the Coir Board, Regional Office, Pollachi, here on Wednesday.

Mr. Yadav said that Rs.20 lakh had been spent on these units. The first coir cluster, which was started in Gudiyatham in 2006, included common facility centres (CFCs), training in capacity building, improvement of designs and skill upgradation. The SHGs should exploit the facilities to make value-added coir products, which were used for interior decoration, and which would fetch them good profits, he said.

N. Arul Jothi Arasan, Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency, said that there was a good export potential for value-added coir products. He called upon the entrepreneurs to increase their production and improve the quality of the products.

P.R. Perumal, Vice-Chairman, Industrial Technical Consultancy Corporation, Tamil Nadu (ITCOT), said that 26 clusters had been set up in India under the SFURTI, including six in Tamil Nadu, in six different districts. SFURTI aimed at helping the beneficiaries to improve quality. ITCOT was providing assistance to the coir units in Vellore, Salem, Cuddalore and Thanjavur districts.

A sum of Rs.30 lakh had been allotted for creating facilities under SFURTI. Among the value-added products, the production of vermi-compost from coir was one of the profitable ventures.

The future holds promise for value-added fibre products, and fibre extraction units were coming up in Tirupattur and Gudiyatham. There was no marketing problem in coconut products, and all that the entrepreneurs had to do was to make sincere efforts. Nine clusters had been identified in Vellore district, and it cost Rs.117 lakh to start one cluster.

While the Coir Board provided Rs.102.5 lakh, the State government provided Rs.14.5 lakh as grant for the project, he said.

K. Kantharaj, Lead Bank Manager, Indian Bank, Vellore, said that banks would readily provide loans to SHGs engaged in rope-making, if the federation of SHGs could make tie-up arrangements with the buyers so that the payments are remitted to the banks, which would adjust the loan instalment. P. Venkatesh, president, Coconut Coir Producers’ Association, Tirupattur, said that arrangements had been made for the training of about 200 entrepreneurs in rope-making through the Coir Board. Rope was always in demand, and the association had made buy-back arrangements for the product.

Thirtyfour beneficiaries had been selected for assistance under the scheme of Rejuvenation, Modernisation and Technology Upgradation for Traditional Industries, and a total subsidy of Rs.64 lakh provided through the Coir Board, he said.

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