The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) will be opening two village industry clusters in southern districts within the current financial year.
According to Ms K.P. Lalithamaney, Director of KVIC Madurai division, while a bee-keeping cluster will be coming up in Kanyakumari, the other one is an agarbathi (incense stick) manufacturing cluster at Tirunelveli. Preliminary surveys have begun for the Kanyakumari cluster, which is expected to employ 600 persons. The final sanction is awaited for the Tirunelveli cluster, which would employ around 1,000 persons.
Seven institutions in the KVIC Madurai division have been chosen in the second phase of the Khadi Reform and Development Programme, which is an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded $ 150 million (approximately Rs 717 crore project at the time it was sanctioned, to rejuvenate the khadi sector. Each institution would receive Rs 1.19 crore in assistance, she added.
Madurai has exceeded the given targets. In Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme, the division has sanctioned 250 projects as against the target of 227 thereby recording 106 per cent target achievement, she said.