Madurai to get zero discharge textile processing park

A Rs 200 crore zero-waste textile processing park, which would be a boon to the textile industry in Tamil Nadu to get rid of effluent, is to come up at Kariapatti in Virudhunagar district on the border with Madurai. This was revealed at a press meet organised to announce the textile expo to be held from June 18 to 21 at Madurai District Tiny and Small-Scale Industries Association (Maditssia). Project director of the textile processing park K R Gnanasambandan said that they were in the process of seeking permission for the foundation stone laying ceremony of the park which is to be spread over 100 acres. He said the park would be established in a year.

As in other districts, textiles had been flourishing in Madurai and the southern districts too with about 75 units functioning well till recently in Madurai alone. However, about 35 of them had closed down thanks to the issue of pollution.

The remaining ones were suspended because power supply was stopped over the issue. Gnanasambandan said that the textile processing park project was signed by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa at the 2015 Global Investors Meet and Maditssia was the first to take up the offer. “The central government will contribute Rs 100 crore and the state government and Maditssia Rs 50 crore each for this park,” he said.

It had taken them five years to get clearances at different levels, including the most important one on pollution from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and other environmental clearances. The park would house 40 textile units which would be relocated into the park from in and around Madurai. The units would bleach and dye textiles, but there would be zero discharge. He said that 96 per cent of the water from the park would be recycled while the remaining 4 per cent, which was sludge, would be sent to the evaporator. The water in the sludge would evaporate and the remaining solid, which was predominantly lime, would be sent to the cement industry.