Textile commissioner, Kavita Gupta has called upon the textile research associations to utilise the funds allocated under Technology Mission for Technical Textiles (TMTT) and insisted that there is no dearth of funds to support the sector.

Addressing the 56th joint technological conference of four major textile research associations — BTRA, SITRA, ATIRA and NITRA – in Coimbatore, Gupta said the fund utilisation on average was 76.51 per cent, with Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA) finishing at the bottom of the heap with only 33 per cent utilisation of funds.

She pointed out that of the Rs 9 crore released out of the allocated Rs 13.5 crore, BTRA’s Centre of Excellence for Geotech had utilised only Rs 3.01 crore.

South India Textile Research (SITRA) has utilised Rs 9.72 crore of the released fund of Rs 11.43 crore, while Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research Association (ATIRA) is still to use Rs 2.46 crore of the released amount of Rs 22.99 crore, Gupta said.

The textile commissioner described technical textiles as the future of the industry. The market size is projected to expand from Rs 75,925 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 1,58,540 crore in 2016-17 at a growth rate of 20 per cent year-on-year, she added.