Punjab’s 25 textile players to expand businesses in Bihar

“The 25 units will be investing over Rs 2,000 crore in the textile cluster in Dehri, Bihar, and we propose to employ nearly 25,000 employees in these units.” (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar/Files/Representational)

As many as 25 textile players from Punjab have decided to expand their units in Bihar. Narinder Chugh, a Ludhiana-based industrialist who is keen to expand in Bihar, said: “The 25 units will be investing over Rs 2,000 crore in the textile cluster in Dehri, Bihar, and we propose to employ nearly 25,000 employees in these units.”

Rohit Lal, CII head of Bihar, who had facilitaed the meeting of Bihar officials with Ludhiana textile industrialists, said: “The units have shown keen interest in expanding in Bihar and the government has also allocated land for them.” While Chugh said that 29 acres of land has been allocated for them, Rohit said, “It can be even more if the industry has plans to add more units in the cluster.”

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Chugh said, “As we are getting better offers than Punjab, we have all the reasons to expand our units in Bihar instead of Punjab. We will not be closing our units in Punjab, but will be expanding in Bihar. In our Thursday’s meeting with Bihar government officials, we have told them to get labour quarters and guest house built within the allotted cluster, so that we can start our application process as the land allocated is in Dehri on Sone in its outskirts and, hence, we need these facilities for our clients and workers. We have also asked them to reduce power tariff from Rs 5 a unit to Rs 4 a unit.”

The textile units are expecting a meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the coming weeks.