Garment park at Puthiyamputhur remains a dream

The garment makers yearn for a better future with the establishment of the much-awaited readymade garment park at Puthiyamputhur. Politicians, especially while seeking votes, many a time made promises that the garment park would be set up in the village to boost the economy and attract more revenue through garment clusters.

However, several years have gone by and such promises have turned out to be empty. They have done nothing to boost the confidence of garment makers, T Manohar, president, Clothes and Readymade Garment Traders Association, Puthiyamputhur told DT Next.

Once the garment park is established with adequate infrastructure, all 150 garment-making units would come under one roof andit would also create a platform to have a direct link with sellers and keep middlemen at bay.

Anticipating the by-poll to the Ottapidaram Assembly constituency, which fell vacant as MLA R Sundararaj was disqualified, the garment makers had been hoping that the new legislator would deliver on earlier promises.

Apart from stores selling garments in parts of Tamil Nadu, the market has also penetrated Puducherry this time. Among the items of clothing ‘long wear gown’ has turned out to be the traders’ choice. The wholesale price of a single outfit for girls ranges from Rs 400 to Rs 700. The fabric was shipped from Surat, Mumbai and Bhilwara. Last year, ‘mastani middi’, a three-piece outfit, was introduced and proved to be a big hit, Manohar said.

ASA Selvakumar, a garment maker, said all of the three items - ‘match and match’, ‘Mumbai-styled churithar’ and long frock for college-going girls - have turned out to be a hit this year. These outfits fetch prices of Rs 1,200, Rs 1,000 and Rs 600 in the wholesale market. For boys, the cross-cut coat shirt item at prices ranging from Rs 550 to Rs 750 has been introduced.

“Since we are feeling the pinch of shrinking workforce in garment making, beedi rollers, who were rendered jobless, have been trained in this tailoring art and employed. Seventy beedirollers from Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district have been roped in this year,” he said.

According to J Pachaiperumal, another garment maker, the trade is facing manpower shortage unlike in the past. “Normally, a unit had 15 to 20 tailors involved in stitching with the aid of power-sewing machines 10 years ago to suit the requirements of buyers. But, now fabrics are taken to the tailors at their doorsteps in surrounding localities, including Ottapidaram, Eral and Sawyerpuram, to complete stitching. Once the outfit is ready, packaging is done in the units at Puthiyamputhur. Garments are tailored to replicate models popular in Mumbai and Indore, where ‘garment parks’ are making big strides. Garment tailoring is a remunerative work in thisvillage, where a tailor could earn up to Rs 1,000 a week normally and more than that during the Deepavali season,” he said.