After dumping Kerala, Kitex Group to invest Rs 1,000 crore in Telangana

Hyderabad: Kerala-based Kitex Group on Friday said it would invest Rs 1,000 crore in setting up a textile manufacturing facility in the city of Warangal in Telangana.

The facility is to come up in the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park which a delegation from the group visited earlier in the day.

The announcement came after a series of meetings by the company's top leadership with Telangana Industry Minister K. T. Rama Rao and senior officials.

After alleging that he was "kicked out" of Kerala, garment major Kitex Group Chairman and Managing Director Sabu M. Jacob, along with other company officials, flew in to Hyderabad on Friday in a chartered flight arranged by the Telangana government for a series of meetings with the minister and his team.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, gave an overview of the progressive investment policies of the state government and also the availability of various resources for textiles industry in Telangana.

The Kitex group expressed satisfaction on the overview and appreciated the quick decision-making in regard to investments.

In principle, the Kitex group has agreed upon a Phase- I investment of 1,000 crore within a span of two years in the textile industry for the project Textile Apparel in the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park in Warangal. This investment will generate an employment of 4,000 jobs in the State of Telangana, a release quoted Jacob as saying.

The Kitex group's delegation was taken in a chopper to the Kakatiya Textile Park to have a look at its facilities.

The minister and senior officials had asked Jacob to visit the State to know about ease of doing business there.

Jacob, who announced withdrawal of his group's Rs 3,500 investment project in Kerala last week alleging harassment by state government officials, said he was invited by the Telangana government after his group had a discussion with them "at different levels."

Kitex Garments Ltd had said it has decided to withdraw from the project signed during the "Ascend Global Investors Meet" organised by the state government here in January 2020, alleging that it was difficult for the company to run the existing industrial units in the state.

The industrialist had alleged that various units of Kitex were raided 10 times by officials from various departments during the past one month.

He had alleged that officials comprising 40-50 in numbers, entered the factory units, carried out searches, prevented workers, including women employees, from doing their job, grilled them and harassed them.

Continuing his criticism, Jacob reiterated that the non-business friendly atmosphere still prevails in the state.

Attacking the government, he alleged that Kerala industries minister P Rajeev sought to justify the actions of the officials who had carried out frequent inspections at his industry units, instead of addressing the issues he had raised.

Meanwhile, some Congress MLAs from Ernakulam district have written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking action against Kitex for allegedly not addressing the issue of pollution at its unit in Kizhakkambalam here.

The government had said that the officials' action against the Kitex were also on the basis of the complaint from opposition MLAs.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS)