A team of manufacturers and exporters affiliated to Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) visited the AMRL Multiproduct Special Economic Zone at Nanguneri here on Friday to explore the possibilities of establishing their units here as they are scouting for promising areas with abundant labour availability.
As the district, particularly Nanguneri, Valliyoor, Kalakkad and Thisaiyanvilai areas, all situated close to the SEZ, are blessed with abundant skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers, now moving to Tirupur, Coimbatore, Chennai and Mumbai for greener pastures, the labour-starved TEA’s search is likely to end here.
After visiting the site, T. R. Vijayakumar, general secretary, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA), said they had come to ascertain the basic infrastructure facilities such as water, uninterrupted quality power, communication, customs and excise clearance on the sprawling AMRL Multiproduct Special Economic Zone premises, availability of labour and then exploring the possibilities of starting the units here.
After explaining in detail the facilities available here to the TEA members – both manufacturers and exporters following the visit, the TEA would bring aspiring investors to the SEZ. Since Tirupur was facing acute labour shortage and this region had been blessed with adequate manpower, possibilities for establishing new units out of the ‘dollar city’ was quite high. As of now, the investors from Tirupur are establishing their units at Andhra Pradesh, Odhisha and Jharkhand owing to manpower shortage.
Since this SEZ is advantageously situated close to the VOC Port in Thoothukudi, the products being manufactured here could be easily taken to the seaport within an hour and exported to overseas destinations. Presently, the transportation of knitwear products and readymade garments from Tirupur to Thoothukudi takes more than six hours.
“We’ll weigh the advantages of the SEZ and the demerits, if any, while discussing all salient features of this campus with our members. Only after comprehensive discussions, we can decide on the number of investors from Tirupur taking land for establishing their units on AMRL Multiproduct Special Economic Zone premises at Nanguneri,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.
The team members also visited the training institute on the SEZ premises where labourers are getting trained for a range of industries to ascertain the ‘work culture’ of the trainees.
“After studying the labourers’ interest for working in the textile industry, we will have to develop the ‘textile work culture’ in them through year-long training before starting our units here,” Mr. Vijayakumar noted.
Vice-president, AMRL Multiproduct Special Economic Zone, Nanguneri Bodgan George took the visitors to the water storage point, power station and the training institute on the SEZ campus and explained in detail the salient features.

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