A ₹200-crore zero-waste textile processing park, which would do away with textile industry effluent, will be set up at Kariapatti in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district. Permission has been sought for the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the 100-acre park, which will take a year to complete, project director of the park KR Gnanasambandan said. Gnanasambandan announced this recently at a curtain raiser event for the media for the textile expo to be held from June 18 to 21 at the Madurai District Tiny and Small-Scale Industries Association (Maditssia). About 35 textile units out of 75 in Madurai had closed down due to pollution issues. 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 Tamil Nadu state 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 ₹100 crore and the state government and Maditssia ₹50 crore each for the park,’ he said. 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, according to Indian media reports. He said 96 per cent of the water from the park would be recycled while the remaining—sludge—would be sent to the evaporator. After evaporation, the remaining solid, predominantly lime, would be sent to the cement industry. Once functional, the park would provide direct employment to 2,000 people and indirect employment to over 5,000 people, Gnanasambandan added.
