The progress of textile parks, under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP), has been moving at a snail’s pace.

The scheme was approved during the tenth five year plan in 2005. While 59 textile parks have been sanctioned, only 22 have been completed. The rest are under various stages of construction. The slow progress has been attributed primarily to delay in obtaining land and other statutory clearances and slow fund mobilisation by the textile parks.

The SITP provides support for creating a good textile infrastructure, with the government granting up to 40 per cent of the project cost. The government grants up to 90 per cent of the project cost for the first two projects each in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir with a ceiling limit of Rs 40 crores for each textile park.

Apart from the SITP, more recent programs are aimed at providing a boost to the textile industry. These include a Rs 6000-crore package that was launched in June 2016 to boost employment and export potential in the apparel and made-up segments. The Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme has been designed to promote the ease of doing business in the country and to mobilise new investment and employment.