Eves spinning mill: Ichalkaranji pride

Once a small princely town ruled by the Ghorpades, Ichalkaranji has flourished into a well-developed textile centre, housing over 70,000 powerlooms.

It also boasts of founding many pioneering units as Deccan Co-operative Spinning mill, the first in the country, Nav Maharashtra Soot Girni- the first 100 per cent export-oriented unit in the country. Adding to this list will be the women’s mill.

The foundations of this project were laid in 1992, when the mill was registered on October 23 that year, said Indumati Awade. Having a 25,000 spindle capacity, the project is being implemented briskly. At nearly Rs 48 crores, it is being implemented in two phases. "During the first phase 18,000 spindles have been installed. The remaining will be commissioned very shortly,”she informed.

About 5,000 women became members thus collecting a share capital to the tune of Rs. 2.64 crores. The mill commenced production in 1995 when the first 6000 spindles had been installed. Presently 21,168 spindles are working in three shifts, said Awade. Employing 800 workers out of which nearly 200 are women, the mill has further plans to recruit women as trainee operators. “They will be gradually trained for supervisory assignments. This dedicated workforce will be the real assets of our mill,”she opined. “We have begun the production in the count range of 20-40 single carded and combed warp and hosiery. Most of our produce will be exported. At present the mill is exporting its produce to Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. A stark example of woman power,”she feels.