The government on Wednesday approved setting up of seven mega integrated textile regions and apparel parks (PM Mitra) for a total outlay of Rs 4,445 crore over five years.

The project could potentially create 21 lakh jobs and boost production and export-led growth.

“PM Mitra will offer an opportunity to create an integrated textiles value chain right from spinning, weaving, processing/dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location,” textiles minister Piyush Goyal told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

He added the park will reduce the logistics cost of industry as the entire value chain of textiles is scattered and fragmented in different parts of the country.

While cotton is grown in Gujarat and Maharashtra, spinning takes place in Tamil Nadu and processing happens in Rajasthan and Gujarat and exports are done from Mumbai and Kandla.

The minister added that PM Mitra parks would be set up at varied greenfield and brownfield sites in participating states. He said the participation of states would be voluntary.

The government would be extending a development capital support of Rs 500 crore to all greenfield projects and Rs 200 crore to brownfield projects under the scheme.

The idea here is to facilitate the common infrastructure of the park which has been pegged at 30 percent of the total project cost. Further, Rs 300 crore would be extended as competitiveness incentive support.

“For a Greenfield PM MITRA park, the GOI Development Capital Support will be 30% of the Project Cost, with a cap of 500 crore. For Brownfield sites, after assessment, Development Capital Support 30% of project cost of balance infrastructure and other support facilities to be developed and restricted to a limit of Rs. 200 Crore,” he stated.

The idea behind these investments is to make the projects viable and attractive for private sector participation. The parks would have to allocate 50 per cent area for pure manufacturing activity, 20 per cent for utilities and 10 per cent for commercial development.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman Dr A Sakthivel said the scheme will help India regain its global leadership position in the textile industry.

“It will attract massive foreign and domestic investment in the sector making it globally competitive while helping create lakhs of jobs….will increase its annual exports to over $100 billion in the next few years. The sector, which is the second largest employment generator in the country, alone will play a major role in realizing Aatma nirbhar Bharat,” he said.

The parks would be collectively owned by the state and central governments in a Public-private partnership (PPP) model. The master developer would also be responsible for maintaining the park during the construction period. The selection of the developer would be based on criteria that would be jointly laid out by state and central governments.

It was pointed out that Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have expressed their interest in setting up such parks.