Finlay Mills, part of National Textile, is building a greenfield plant at Achalpur, as part of the government’s programme to revive 21 mills through public private partnership.

Union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela on Friday said the new mill would be a composite textile mill with state-of-the-art machinery of 144 shuttleless looms, 48,000 spindles and a capacity to dye 4,000 kg of yarn and process 60,000 metres of fabric per day.

The mill is expected to provide employment to 1,284 people and the cost of modernisation would be Rs 236 crore, Mr Vaghela said. The first phase would be operational by March 2009. The foundation stone for the mill would be laid by president Pratibha Patil on Saturday.

Speaking at a conference to announce the event, textile commissioner JN Singh said: “There has been over Rs 1 lakh crore investment in the last fiscal year in textiles industry and about $20 billion worth of exports.”

The Modified Revival Scheme for National Textile Corporation was finalised two years back at Rs 5,267 crore, which will be funded through Rs 528 crore via interest-free loans from the government and Rs 4,739 crore from the sale of land and other assets.

Separately, it was also announced at the function that production of cotton in 2007-08 (October-September) totalled 315 lakh bales. The export focus has now shifted from US to other nations such as Europe and Middle East. Exports in US increased only by 1.71% last fiscal year while it increased by 16% to Europe and 25% to Middle East. Total export figures in January-April 2008 was $8.83 billion, up from last year’s $7.17 billion.

The textiles ministry recently announced a hike in the minimum support price of cotton by 40%.