With an eye on doubling total exports across sectors, especially the leather footwear sector, the government has trained its guns on opening special parks and special clusters to facilitate landing of new investments. In Ranipet district in Tamil Nadu, a Mega Leather Footwear and Accessories Cluster (MLFAC) and a zero-solid waste Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) are coming up to provide plug and play infrastructure to the industry and to ensure environmental compliance, according to Nidhi Kesarwani, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Investment and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Addressing industry captains and the media on Monday during a meeting in Chennai, Ms. Kesarwani said that the proposed CETP is being constructed at a cost of ₹50 crore and is expected to start functioning from December. The facility, she said, was one of a kind in the world that converted the solid waste to generate a salt meant for industrial use. Complimenting the State government and industry stakeholders for adopting zero liquid-discharge projects, she said that the Union government has sanctioned nine CETPs for the industry with environment-friendly technology, eight of which were to be situated in Tamil Nadu.
As part of the Integrated Footwear and Leather Development Programme, the Union government was building four parks, one of which was the MLFAC in Panapakkam in Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu. The total cost of the project is ₹271 crore and the Union government’s contribution is ₹125 crore.
The plug and play facility at Panapakkam is being developed as a hub for non-leather footwear manufacturing and, already, some of the top contract manufacturers in the world, including Pou Chen and Hong Fu, have committed to an investment of ₹15,000 crore.
Petal Dhillon, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, said that the leather footwear and accessories sector received an export boost after India signed Free Trade Agreements with Australia, New Zealand, Oman, UAE, the European Union, and European Free Trade Association member-countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland), opening up zero-duty access for the sector. Tamil Nadu, she said, accounted for 37% of exports in India in 2025-26, totally amounting to about USD 4.27 billion. The sector was largely MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise) and labour-intensive, employing a large number of women. The government, she said, was looking to help the sector proliferate while retaining its labour-intensive character.
Present at the meeting were Aqeel Panaruna, former Chairman, Council for Leather Exports; Mukhtarul Amin, Vice Chairman, CLE; M. Abdul Wahab, Regional Chairman-South, CLE; and K.R. Vijayan, SRC, CLE.
Published – June 09, 2026 05:30 am IST
