Surat textile trade to boost up with the air connectivity to Kolkata, as Kolkata is a big market for Surti saris and dress material. The textile city of Surat is ruling the across the vast Indian markets in the sale of synthetic and silk saris and now the embroidery sector has cast an eye on the lucrative Kolkata market.

According to sources, Surat has been losing out on huge investment potential due to the non-availability of national flights and cargo facilities from its airport. Kolkata is an important market for city's textile sector as almost 30 per cent of the goods are supplied every year.

According to President of Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) Sanjay Jagnani, the city's textile business would witness a heavy rush of buyers If they had an option to travel by air as a lot of buyers from other cities wanting to visit the textile city Surat are avoiding travelling by rail.

As, the textile hub in the last few year has emerged to be leading player in the embroidery sector. Starting from a few hundred embroidery machines, the embroidery industry in the city now have more than 70,000 high-end embroidery machines imported from China, Taiwan and Japan.

Kolkata manufacturers make hand-made embroidery saris whereas Surat has mastered the computerized embroidery reducing the cost of embroidery by more than half in comparison with Kolkata.

Medium range saris from synthetic fabric dispatched from Kolkata are mainly embroidered in Surat, which has for long been the hub of synthetic sector but is now fast developing its embroidery sector.

It is learnt that the spice jet airline is trying for morning Mumbai-Delhi flight via Surat, but with Mumbai being a busy airport, slot availability is a major issue.