To improve the marketing of the powerloom products produced within a radius of 70 km from Erode, it was important to have a textile market complex at Erode. A special purpose vehicle named ‘Erode Textile Mall Ltd’ was formed and the Ministry cleared the proposal in 2009.

C Devarajan, Vice-Chairman and P Raajashekar, Managing Director, respectively of Erode Textile Mall Ltd that is executing the project, said that after the announcement of a ‘Comprehensive Powerloom Cluster Development Scheme’ in the 2008-09 Budget, the Ministry of Textiles appointed a Cluster Management and Technical Agency for studying the support needed for the Erode powerloom cluster.

An integrated textile mall is now coming up at the powerloom hub of Erode at an investment of about Rs.450 crore. While the Centre is supporting with a grant of about Rs.40 crore, the rest is borne by the promoters and other stakeholders from textile industry, with the state offering partial stamp duty relief for the project land.

The project is coming up on18 acres close to Coimbatore-Salem National Highway, would have a built-up area of 16 lakh sq.ft and have three major components. While the main mart would have space for 1,650 showrooms to display the textile products from the Erode belt, there would be a separate weekly market complex to accommodate 4,000 tiny and small textile producers-cum-traders to sell directly their wares. This will be open for one or two days every week. There will also be an international convention centre for conducting exhibitions. The estimated cost of the project, when completed, will be Rs.450 crore.

There will be transport facility from the mall to important centres in Erode and its neighbourhood. Integrated warehouse and logistics service providers and banking facility with ATMs will also be made available.

The weekly market complex is slated to open in June this year and the daily market complex in September. The international convention centre will be opened in January next year.

At present in the weekly market nearly 4000 traders conducted business on Mondays and Tuesdays. Of them, 3,600 have expressed willingness to shift to Texvalley and around 3,000 traders have paid the advance for their shops. To extend support to the traders for promoting their products, the promoter have planned to conduct roadshows across the country.

The daily market is likely to generate business of more than Rs.6,000 crore per year from the third year of commercial operation. The weekly market is expected to generate business in excess of Rs.1,000 crore per year from the second year.

The weekly market will now provides a window to small and medium manufacturers to directly market their products and Texvalley will help serve the interests of both categories.

The city’s wholesale daily textile market accounted for an annual business volume of about Rs.4,000 crore and the weekly textile shandy generated about Rs.200 crore. The Erode powerloom industry known for its grey cloth (unbleached and un-dyed), yarn dyed fabrics for export garments, towels, lungies and dhotis, sarees and ladies dress materials, bed linen/home furnishings/made-ups etc.