Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Department, Ranjan Prakash Thakur today visited the Silk Reeling, Weaving and Joinery Units of Jammu Kashmir Industries Limited located at Bari Brahmana here and took stock of the working of these units.On the occasion, Managing Director JKI informed that the Government Silk Weaving Factory and Government Silk Filatures at Bari Brahmana Jammu have been established with project cost of Rs 16.80 crore and Rs 6.64 crore respectively in a record time period of around 2 years and were inaugurated in the month of February 2020.It was given out that the setting up these units has brought a positive impact on the lives of the people associated with the silk sector especially the marginalized farmers as during the last year JKI has procured around 66 MT of cocoon worth Rs 5.80 crore which directly benefitted around 5000 cocoon farmers. Further, it was informed that JKI plans to procure around 130 MT of cocoon during the current year which would lead to direct benefit to around 10000 cocoon farmers.
During his visit to the Joinery unit, Principal Secretary was also briefed about the efforts being made by the organization for increasing it marketing outreach such as creation of brochures catalogues and through tie- ups with various e-market platforms such as Amazon.Further to cater to the Government market the process of registration on GeM has been initiated and the process is likely to be completed soon, it was informed.While reviewing the working of JKI, Principal Secretary appreciated the efforts being put by JKI management for running the units on commercial lines.He further directed the management to focus on the marketing of the products being manufactured by these units.During his visit Principal Secretary also took a comprehensive review of the Livelihood Component of the World Bank funded Jehlum-Tawi Flood Recovery Project being implemented by the PIU(I&C).While appreciating the work being carried out of in the clusters Principal Secretary stressed on greater market linkages for the clusters.