Ahmedabad: The Gujarat textile industry has demanded a special focus on the processing segment, stating it is the weakest link in the textile value chain. Industry representatives said that units within municipal limits should be given the advantage of the Gujarat Textile Policy 2024.

A delegation met with top officials in the industries department and raised the issue of ambiguity in the classification of talukas in the policy and sought govt support for the industry's growth.

The delegation included Vijay Agrawal, chairman of The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), Bharat Chhajer, former chairman of the Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCI), and leading textile industrialists.

"Currently, the Textile Policy does not cover units other than those located in GIDC, but existing within municipal corporation limits. Hence, 99% of the textile units, mainly processing, are unable to get the benefits of the revised guidelines of the policy. Since there are such 800 units in Ahmedabad alone and similarly in Surat, which are the heart of the textile industry, they are unable to upgrade themselves from old obsolete machines to new latest technology to compete in the international market.

Hence, such units located within municipal limits Industrial areas (but not in GIDC) should also be Included in the revised guidelines," the delegation members said.

The Industry demanded that processing units with state-of-the-art technology, such as waterless dyeing, sublimation digital printing, and washing and bleaching ranges that require less water to treat, should be given benefits on par with garmenting units.

These new units should be allowed in dedicated industrial areas with ZLD (zero liquid discharge) facilities to avoid pollution, the delegation members said.

Industry leaders also stated that the requirement of 4,000 people employed at a unit to avail of benefits as a labour-intensive unit should be reduced. "It was requested that the minimum employment threshold should be 2,000 to begin with, which can be later expanded as per workload and business," said a source.