The focus of the project
The project’s focus is to develop value-added garment products from the grey fabric produced in Ichalkaranji — especially for exports — and to generate additional employment for women entrepreneurs from Ichalkaranji and the surrounding area.
To achieve this, the SPV is establishing processing facilities and common facility centres on land available at Yashwant Co-operative Processors Ltd., Ichalkaranji, using modernised technology. Wholesale job-work orders, together with raw material, are collected by the SPV from small and large garment enterprises and exporters. Stitching is handled by women through self-help groups who are members of the SPV, while cutting, finishing and packaging are handled at the Common Processing Centre and Common Facility Centre. The SPV also undertakes marketing for the cluster, initially working on a labour-job basis for major exporters and garment manufacturers in Mumbai, Bangalore and other parts of India.
The Common Facility Centre (CFC)
The SPV develops the following facilities at the Common Facility Centre:
Processing Centre
Ichalkaranji is a well-known centre for decentralised power looms, with an estimated 1,00,000+ looms working in and around the town. As owners modernise — encouraged by Central and State incentives — over 15,000 automatic and 4,500 shuttle-less looms have been installed, making it one of the fastest-growing weaving centres in the country. Yet the industry largely works on “high volume, low margin”; value addition through garmenting is the key to better returns and employment.
Good-quality processed fabric is the costliest input in garment conversion, and small garment units struggle to source it locally. To produce export-grade fabric, a processing house needs machinery such as singeing, mercerising, hydraulic jiggers, pad-batch dyeing, a stenter with weft-straightening, and a sanforising (compressive-shrinkage) machine — improving dimensional stability, colour fastness, appearance and texture. Yashwant Co-operative Processors Ltd. has been chosen for its central location, trained staff, and available utilities (power, water, ETP) and space, letting the cluster produce the desired quality without heavy new infrastructure spend.
Design Centre
Garment manufacturing is driven by fashion, so a disciplined design approach is decisive. The Design Centre works to:
- Develop designs for new products and create collections for specific buyers, retailers or the wider market.
- Minimise fabric wastage while cutting.
- Design specialised garments — aqua-suits, trekking wear, workers’ uniforms, firefighters’ uniforms.
- Support testing and R&D for material selection and fabric/garment design.
Research & Development Centre
The garment industry changes fast; staying competitive demands creativity and research. The R&D Centre is equipped to:
- Conduct market surveys and analyse products for economical production.
- Study the wide range of local fabric and identify value-addition routes.
- Develop special fabrics to meet customer demand and troubleshoot production.
- Provide product and process norms, guidance for new products, and technology updates for entrepreneurs.
Common Production Centre
The most important and beneficial part of the cluster — a well-equipped shared production floor for garmenting. Small units and micro-finance groups can access facilities they could never afford alone: cutting, button stitching, button-holing, fusing, inspection, wet processing, embroidery, T-shirt making, pintuck and smocking work, digital printing and sewing-thread manufacturing. Operated by the SPV as a limited-profit centre, it offers job work at the lowest possible rates, giving small units the confidence to take on better orders.
Common Testing Laboratory
Quality-conscious manufacturers rely on a well-equipped lab and trained technicians. The laboratory handles raw-material checking, in-process quality assurance, final-product inspection and feasibility testing for new products and R&D — staffed in partnership with DKTE’s Textile & Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji.
Common Information Centre
To grab global opportunities, the cluster needs information at its fingertips: finding spares and new machinery, tracking technology developments, sourcing raw material, connecting with buyers and retailers, winning orders, building brands and identifying exhibitions to attend. The centre runs its own server, connected to the other centres for production planning and information flow.
Common Logistics, Marketing & Exhibition Centre
This centre promotes the cluster’s business and services. Logistics handles production planning and control — supplying cut pieces to stitching units, collecting stitched garments for finishing, and monitoring delivery dates. The common marketing place lets buyers meet many production units and view a wide range of products in one place, while the exhibition centre is a shared platform to display and promote products.
Effluent Treatment Plant
Garment processing needs large volumes of water and leaves polluted effluent behind. To meet national and state pollution-control norms, the CFC is established at Yashwant Co-operative Processors Ltd., where processing and subsequent effluent treatment are carried out together. The ETP’s expected capacity is 5,00,000 litres per day.
The role of DKTE
DKTE acts as the major training-cum-facility partner for micro-entrepreneurs, offering state-of-the-art machinery, skilled manpower, a supporting laboratory and library — used both for training and as the R&D centre, building confidence and supporting product development.
Land, finance & infrastructure
The CFC is developed at Yashwant Co-operative Processors Ltd., 47 Industrial Estate, Ichalkaranji, Tal. Hatkanangale, Dist. Kolhapur, under a lease agreement for the land and building. Kallappa Awade Ichalkaranji Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd. has agreed in principle to provide the required term loan and working capital.
As the common facility and processing centres come online, existing entrepreneurs expand and new ones enter the garment and textile industry. To support them, the SPV is studying the infrastructure needs — industrial-estate roads, water, electricity, telecommunications and marketing amenities — and will submit a Detailed Project Report for Infrastructure Facilities to the Government of India under the MSE-CDP scheme of the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.