A soft silk unit would soon be set up in Channapatna a town in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 10 crore that will help reduce the price of Mysore silk sarees. This was announced by Karnataka State Silk Industries Corporaion (KSIC) Chairperson D Basavaraju during his visit to KSIC factory in the city.

D Basavaraju said that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 100 crore for textiles department. The KSIC is likely to get Rs 10 crore. If sanctioned, the funds will be used to set up a soft silk unit on 20 acres of land at Channapatna. A further Rs 6 crore will be required for machinery at the unit. Once the units starts functioning, it would help to bring down the cost of silk sarees.

As a large number of permanent employees are on the verge of retirement at KSIC., Applications will be invited to fill these posts. Also steps will be taken to fill 50 vacant posts at KSIC. At present, there are 905 employees, of which 679 are permanent employees while 226 others outsourced.

They also plan to launch an outlet of KSIC products in Davangere soon.

The sarees produced at the soft silk unit will be sold at a cost of Rs 4,000, making Mysore silk sarees more affordable to the public which currently is priced from Rs.11,000 onwards.