Five special economic zone footwear parks were being developed, under the Council for Leather Exports' (CLE) vision map for 2010-2011 which envisages setting up these parks in various parts of the country with capacity to generate 5,000 jobs, CLE Chairman, Mukhtarhul Amin informed reporters here on Thursday.
Government would share 40 percent of the equity costs of each park to be set up at a cost of Rs100 crore.
One of the park at Sriperumbudur near Chennai is being promoted by Tamil Nadu Government which will have the capacity to manufacture one lakh pairs of footwear a day. It will house 20 units and 105 acres of land which can be later sold to entrepreneurs.
Other parks are scheduled to come up near Kanpur, Hyderabad, Agra and Kolkata.
The CLE's target of exports of $7 billion by 2010-2011 from the existing $3 billion would require investments to the tune of Rs7,300 crore over next five years.
As leather industry was facing the crunch of skilled manpower, the CLE suggested changes in the curricula of Central Footwear Training Institute and the IITs.
Functioning of existing training centres would be improved and new training centres would be established.
On successful completion of the pilot project at Kancheepuram, workstations for training rural youth would be set up in other parts of the country.
To increase tanning capacity, two tanning clusters would be setup, with the first coming up near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.
The Council's effort to attract foreign direct investments has resulted into few foreign firms setting up ventures in India, including Taiwanese company Feng Tae's facility at Cheyyar near Chennai.
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