Footwear design studio and test lab to come up in Chennai
05 Feb 2008
Chennai: The footwear design and component-testing lab at the Footwear Component Park at Irrungattukotai near Chennai will be inaugurated shortly. The commissioning of the lab is expected to assist small and medium-sized shoe units, which have to send their foot wear to Singapore for certification at the moment.
The 28-acre park with 21 industrial plots has been promoted by the Consortium of Shoe Manufacturers, a special purpose vehicle of the Council of Leather Exports (CLE) to develop component industry.
"Eighteen plots have been allotted to manufacturers. There are three foreign direct investments - two from Italy and one from Brazil," says Dr K Elangovan, executive director, CLE.
"The small and medium sized units find sending their footwear components to Singapore for testing and certification. very expensive," he said.
According to Elangovan, the Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) Noida, near New Delhi and Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, are in the race for running the design studio.
The FDDI is likely to bag the mandate as the discussions are on the revenue sharing with CLE is on.
"We want a share in the total revenue and not in the profits of the design studio and the test lab," Elangovan added.
