Date:11/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/11/stories/2005011101711700.htm

Back An apparel park with a marked difference

G. Gurumurthy

Tirupur , Jan. 10

THE new industrial complex at Ettiveerampalayam village on NH 47, houses the country's first privately-promoted apparel park.

The special purpose company, Nethaji Apparel Park (NAP) has implemented the Rs 300-crore project for the knitwear industries in Tirupur.

The Erode-based URC Construction Private Ltd, which won the Rs 81-crore NAP contract that included the Rs 4-crore electrical contract, started work in November 2003.

The park premises is on a 166-acre plot, which will house 53 knitwear units (the individual investors allotted ownership sites in NAP).

The Erode-based builders are involved in the Rs 20-crore hostel building of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, ISRO's township, Hyderabad income-tax building (Rs 16-crore project) and Bharat Petroleum's Rs 17-crore project in Visakhapatnam.

The 15-month deadline given to complete the NAP project was a challenging one, according to Mr C. Devarajan, Director of URC Construction.

The builders had to engage 2,500 workers continuously for 15 months, procure water and URC had to shell out roughly one per cent of their project cost or Rs 80 lakh towards buying water for the construction of NAP which will have 20 lakh sq ft of RCC structure.

The 60-ft road criss-crossing the five-km length inside the park is in the form of kerbed paved pathway structure.

The entire park has peripheral wall and inside individual units are provided with internal compound wall made of interlocking blocks.

The entire power requirement for NAP units is to be met by the 2 MW captive power plant from Diatsu, Japan that will run on furnace oil and the park may not depend on grid supply.

Predominantly involved in export manufacturing, all the NAP units are provided with data cable facility in their premises.

The NAP project has accorded priority in handling sewage water treatment inside the park area and the contractors have taken the model from the IFCO sewage treatment plant in Ahmedabad.

Of the10 lakh litre of sewage to pass through the treatment plant, eight lakh litres would be recovered and reused for gardening purpose, says Mr Devarajan.

The work facility inside the park area includes a massive dining hall and a multipurpose hall each with 10,000 sq ft area. The new facility to be added are an exhibition hall of 20,000 sq ft and a ladies hostel to accommodate 1,000 members and a workers training centre.

The investment by individual companies participating in NAP is said to be around Rs 300 crore, which is expected to generate business to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore.