Bhubaneswar: The State of Odisha has been left out of the list of seven states selected for the establishment of PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks, a flagship scheme of the central government aimed at boosting the textile sector. The exclusion comes despite the state having reportedly expressed interest and submitted a proposal for a park in Ganjam.
The Ministry of Textiles recently announced the final seven sites for the ambitious PM MITRA Parks, which are: Tamil Nadu (Virudhnagar), Telangana (Warangal), Gujarat (Navsari), Karnataka (Kalaburagi), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow), Madhya Pradesh (Dhar), and Maharashtra (Amravati). These parks are being set up with a total outlay of Rs. 4,445 crore until 2027-28 and are expected to generate 3 lakh jobs per park.
The PM MITRA Parks, designed to have world-class infrastructure including common effluent treatment plants and plug-and-play facilities, were selected through a “challenge method” based on criteria such as connectivity, existing textile ecosystem, and state industrial policy.
While the central government’s data indicates that 18 proposals were received from 13 states, including Odisha, the state’s bid did not make the final selection. This decision has sparked debate, with opposition party legislators claiming the state has been neglected for political reasons, and official sources suggesting the state government did not fully participate in the bidding process as required.
The central government has already sanctioned initial Development Capital Support to the selected parks, with Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh receiving Rs. 50 crore each, and Maharashtra and Telangana receiving Rs. 30 crore each. Investment interest worth Rs. 42,491 crore has been received for all seven selected parks.
Odisha, which was previously active in the bidding and had identified a 1,000-acre land parcel, will now miss out on the competitive incentive support of up to Rs. 300 crore per park and the significant employment generation expected from the scheme. The state has previously seen a limited number of projects under the erstwhile Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP), which has now been subsumed under the Textile Cluster Development Scheme (TCDS) for ongoing projects.