Design center opened for Handloom !
A design centre for handloom was opened at Marutham outlet of the state-owned Co-optex here today by Tamil Nadu Handloom and Textile Minister N K K P Raja.The centre, located in the newly renovated outlet at a cost of Rs 25 lakh, would be helpful for weavers to come out with new designs of sarees and other items suiting the needs of customers, Raja told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration.Coimbatore is the first location to have a separate design centre, which become operational, out of the four proposed in the state including Chennai, Vellore and Madurai and all the four centres would be networked in due course.The weavers would be allowed to download the design at these centres free of cost, Raja said, adding that the customers can also avail the services of the centre for their traditional or modern generation attire.
To promote sales in Marutham outlets and also attract more crowd, students from various educational institutions, with fashion design as a course, would be allowed to work in the evenings, he said.Marutham outlet here has sold Rs 2.45 crore worth products during 2006-07 and Rs 3 crore target has been set for the present fiscal. The outlet has achieved a sales of Rs 57.23 lakh till August this year, Raja said.
