Knitted garment sector is re-emerging in West Bengal and is likely to become a competitor to Tirupur, according to J Thulasidharan, chairman of Southern India Mills? Association (SIMA). ?West Bengal is becoming a preferred destination for garment investment since it has abundant labour at reasonable cost, liberal pollution norms, plenty of water and coal for steam making. The state can source yarn from the south and carry it through ships and reduce transportation cost. There are also large-scale units with high productivity norms,? he said in Coimbatore.
Compared to this, the situation in Tirupur is very unimpressive. There are only very few vertically integrated garmenting factories. Most of the working unit are having only tiny/small scale of operation. Majority of the units are converters / job workers using outdated technology. They are not able to meet the pollution norms cost effectively. Water and power are very expensive and dyers have increased the processing charges by Rs 20 to 25 per kg . There is severe shortage of labour and labour cost has increased by 20%.
Labour productivity also is very low, 10 to 15 pieces per person as against 20 to 30 pieces per person in Bangladesh. There are no facilities for human resource training and development. Tirupur units also do not have adequate working capital, Thulasidharan added.