The process has started for setting up a Rs 5.3 crore powerloom complex, a handloom unit and a residential layout for homeless weavers in Gurmitkal town in Yadgir district of Karnataka. The state’s Textiles Minister Baburao Chinchansur laid the foundation stone for the project.

As many as 64 hi-tech production units of power and handloom would be established at the cost of Rs. 30 lakh in the complex to encourage weavers, the minister said. The houses would be given to weavers on lease for 30 years.

In August this year, the Karnataka government announced that it was planning to set up a hi-tech textile training centre in Yadgir district, which has been identified as one of the backward districts of the state by the Nanjundappa Committee. The centre would be set up on five acres of land in Bandalli village with an investment of about Rs 10 crore.