Gujarat’s technical textile sector sees 10-fold increase in investments (Representational image)

By Nayan Dave

Considered as the sunshine segment for the textile industry, technical textile has shown impressive growth over the past five years in Gujarat as investment jumped over 10 fold during the period.

By the end of financial year 2013-14, there were only 17 technical textile units registered with the state industries department and investment in the area was hardly `156 crore. Within five years, the number of registered units has gone up to 181 and as on March 31, 2019, the total investment in the segment is pegged at `1,775 crore.

“The investment in the segment must be more than the official figure. The state government has the data of only those units which have taken some benefits under the textile policy floated for the period 2012 to 2017. A specific credit-linked interest subsidy scheme offered under the policy to set up a technical textile unit encouraged entrepreneurs. Some of them were already having traditional textile units in the state,” said a senior officer in the state industries department.

As per the data, maximum investment of around `475 crore came during the financial year 2016-17. In that year, as many as 51 new units were set up across Gujarat, especially in Ahmedabad and Surat regions – considered as major textile hubs in the country. During the recently-concluded fiscal 2018-19, 32 new technical textile units were set up in the state with an approximate investment of `370 crore.