The powerloom industry of Bhiwandi is on the verge of collapse these days, have been sold for scrap.

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Special Story SHAARIF ANSARI.

MUMBAI TIMES: The powerloom industry of Bhiwandi is on the verge of collapse these days. More than half of the powerlooms in the city have been sold for scrap.

The powerloom industry of Bhiwandi, which is called the Manchester of the powerloom industry in the country, is struggling on the verge of destruction these days.

In the last five years, more than half of the powerlooms in Bhiwandi have been sold as scrap, and more than half of the powerloom factories that are left are closed. The textile market is completely cold due to the rising cost of electricity, speculation on the daily fluctuations in the price of yarn and the low demand for cloth. Due to which the powerloom owners who produce cloth are reducing their production day by day. Because the cloth made in the powerloom factory is being sold at a loss of one to two rupees per meter quality wise. There is no demand in the market for fancy or dress material type grey cloth. There is a severe recession in grey cloth since last February. The situation is such that people are not ready to run the rented factory even on the electricity bill alone.

The cost of a pair of powerlooms comes to around one and a quarter lakh rupees for setting up a new powerloom machine.

The same powerloom is being sold as scrap for 30 to 40 thousand rupees these days. People have become completely debtors after exhausting their capital in one year. The situation of many factory owners has become such that they have sold all the jewellery in the house and are unable to repay the yarn bought on credit from the market and the loans taken from the banks.

People say that when they are not in a position to pay the electricity bill, cannot pay salaries to the staff then from where will they pay for the bank loan or the yarn bought on credit. People believe that the powerloom industry which is a domestic industry is now counting its last breaths.

Earlier there were more than 7 lakh powerloom machines in Bhiwandi city, of which only three to 3.5 lakh are left now. People having knowledge of textile trade believe that with the advent of automatic, airjet waterjet loom, it has become difficult to manufacture cloth on old type of powerloom machine and its cost and quality demand is gradually decreasing in the market.

Many traders told that this Bhiwandi textile industry has gradually shifted to Surat. There, automatic and water jet looms have been installed in large mills in large numbers which can produce four times more than the old type of machines in the same time.

A bitter truth related to this industry is that this is an industry that provides direct employment to less educated or illiterate people, in which workers from every corner of the country come and live in the slums of Bhiwandi city and produce cloth from powerloom to earn a living for their family and also send money to their village for the maintenance of their family. The reality is that now no new class of youth is learning to operate powerloom machines.

This industry which used to provide direct employment to about 1.5 lakh people is now able to provide employment to less than 40 to 50 thousand workers due to its poor condition. Whose number is continuously decreasing. Due to the continuous closure of factories, there is extreme disappointment and unemployment among the workers. The remaining workers are either migrating or working in the warehousing hubs around Bhiwandi city to feed themselves and their families. The truth is that the central or state government does not formulate any policy for old powerloom machines in the name of modernization. Due to the government's negligence, the powerlooms of Bhiwandi, including the whole of Maharashtra, are on the verge of closure.

Most of the remaining powerlooms that are producing textiles are somehow managing to run their business and are unable to recover even the cost of the factory. Experts believe that if this situation continues, then in the next five to ten years, the powerloom industry will be wiped out from Bhiwandi city. If this domestic industry and the powerloom industry of Bhiwandi city, which is called the Manchester of the country, are to be saved, then the government will have to take it out of the textile policy and form a separate commission for the powerloom industry.