Thiruvananthapuram:
Even as the
city-based Kinfra International Apparel Parks is finding it hard to
sell fully-built and developed plots to garment manufacturers, several
small-scale units unrelated to the garment industry are finding the
park attractive to house their units.
The Rs 21.7-crore apparel park project, spread across 50 acres, has a
segregated 30 acres for small-scale units, primarily connected to the
garment industry. While the park is yet to attract garment units,
certain small-scale players in the fields of lubricants, furniture
steel-frames and PVC pipes have occupied space here. Even units from
outside the state, like the Chennai-based furniture company Ind Royale,
plan to set up export offices in the park.
"We have allotted seven acres for small-scale units, and six more
are in the process of allotment," says the parks managing
director N Sasidharan Nair. The project, conceptualised some years
ago, got bogged down due to power supply and labour-union problems.
"Initially we thought of drawing power from the nearby Technopark
substation. But its power station got delayed and hence we decided to
draw power from Andoor, which is 16 kms from here," says Nair.
The park also faced the sons-of-soil problem. In order to pacify
the agitators as well as to offer the investors trained local hands,
the park conducted training programmes for around 1,000 people. In
addition, a training centre got added to the apparel park project.
Nair says negotiations are on with garment groups like Trendsetters,
the Leela and a couple of Chennai-based manufacturers.
About the downturn in the garment sector and the chances of the park
attracting investments, Nair says: "This project was planned when
quota utilisation was around 120 per cent. It is true that we do have
some problem in finding big garment units willing to expand, but that
is going to be a temporary snag."
The park offers built units as well as plots. The monthly rent for a
constructed unit is Rs 3.30 per sq ft. "We have built three
modules measuring 17,500 sq ft each," he says. The lease rent for
a one-acre plot is Rs 21.1 lakh and the lease period is 90 years. The
modules are designed in such a way that every unit can conduct work
using natural light, thereby saving the cost of power. Incidentally,
Nair himself works without
switching on the lights while in office.
Nair says the park will earn
revenues from renting out five small office spaces, two conference
rooms, an exhibition centre and a garment-training centre. These
ready-to-use facilities are now used by television serial producers,
due to which the company gets some operational revenues.
|
