Business zooms at KFTZ to drag it out of red

Kandla Free Trade Zone (KFTZ), one of the premier free-trade zones of the country, appears to be coming out of the red.

The zone, which was able to achieve exports of just Rs 391.81 crore last fiscal, has already exported goods and services to the tune of Rs 369 crore till 12 December, 1999. According to sources, the main sectors contributing to growth in exports this year include chemicals and allied sectors, readymade garments including knitwear and fashion garments and engineering products.

"Of the major players who have contributed to the resurgence of KFTZ is Hindustan Lever Limited. They have been exporting their Pepsodent toothpaste to the tune of Rs 42 crore, Fair & Lovely face creams worth Rs 35 crore, body lotions and soaps from KFTZ. So far, they have exported goods worth Rs 85 crore and are expected to achieve a target of Rs 115 crore by end of this fiscal. Ipca Pharma and Novartis have been major pharma players. Among the readymade garments sector, Miltons have achieved exports of Rs 11 crore; Sapphire Apparels have done Rs 5.6 crore and Excel has exported goods worth Rs 5.7 crore, while Shemitz Needles have been the major contributor in the engineering goods sector, with Rs 7-8 crore of exports," sources said.

For the exports worth Rs 369 crore, the total imports by all the players in the zone have been around only Rs 85-90 crore. "The net inflow of forex is quite high. KFTZ has also opened its doors to private bonded warehouses. Earlier, it was mandatory for the units to have a certain amount of manufacturing. However, now international trading is allowed at the zone. One can import, package and export the goods. As many as two dozen such units have applied for and half a dozen of them have become operational," sources added.

Talking about infrastructural facilities at the zone, sources said that KFTZ has already tied up for water supply and a dedicated pipeline for supply of 2MLD of water from Adipur will be in place till March 31 next. "High Tension power is also available on demand within a period of about one month, compared to 2-3 months earlier," he added.

However, all is not well as yet. The Free Trade Zone is dogged by varied problems. "There are no effective ways to travel to Gandhidham. There is no direct airlink and the runway at Bhuj (65 km from Gandhidham) is only about 5000 feet and is unable to handle bigger aircrafts. Even rail links are inadequate. However the biggest problem is that of water. Many a time we discourage units not to come and set up their establishments in KFTZ. There are no perennial rivers in Kutch. The state government had proposed raising the height of the Thappar dam at a cost of Rs 25 crore but there was no guarantee of constant supply. So what we need is a desalination plant," sources said.

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Compiled from local news media