The recent flooding in the city of Chennai has had an adverse impact on a large number of both residential as well as commercial projects in and around the city. And the humongous loss of functionality as well as property also enveloped the textile industry of the area. Pertaining to the rains, even the festive sales for Christmas have taken a hit, thus worsening the already grim situation.

1. Effects Of Chennai Flood On Indian Textile Industry
The recent flooding in the city of Chennai has had an adverse impact on a large number of
both residential as well as commercial projects in and around the city. And the humongous
loss of functionality as well as property also enveloped the textile industry of the area.
Pertainingto the rains, eventhe festive sales for Christmas have taken a hit, thus worsening
the already grim situation.
While the city is moving back to its normal functioning, due to the plunge in sales, order
worth an estimated amount of Rs. 500 crore have been cancelled. Since a large majority of
these orders are fulfilledby the textile sector of Surat in Gujarat, businesses in the state are
facing a difficult situation. Surat is known to supply textiles, and apparels worth Rs. 110
crores to the marketsof southern India on a day-to-day basis, of which only materials worth
Rs. 30 crores are currently being supplied bringing down the supplies to a meagre 80%.
These materials include sarees, home textiles as well as dress materials.
Mr.DevkishanManghani, the Director of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, recently informed that Chennai, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Bangalore, Kozhikode,
Thrissur, Vijaywada, Kochi and Cuddalore are some of the most important textile centres,
where materialsare consistentlysuppliedbythe Surat’s textile industry. He also stated, that
during this quarter of the year, the demands from the northern part of India is almost
negligible and hence the dependence on the southern market increases significantly. But
attributing to the heavy rains, the coming three months would be rather hard on Surat’s
textile sector.
The Director of the Federationof Surat Textile Trader Association, Mr.Champalal Bothra said
that Tamil Nadu is one of the largest markets for the textile industry of Surat, but a large
majority of the goods dispatched to the area have either be returned or reportedly been
lost in transit. The total losses incurred in transit haven’t been calculated as of now. The
situation has been aggravated by the delay in payments, which have caused a huge
disruption in the turnover cycle.
Moreover, a lot of workers coming from the state of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu work
for the textile industry of Surat. Due to the situation created by the floods, the workers
haven’t been able to resume work, thus hampering the production as well as the sales,
thereby contributing to further adversity in terms of the overall business.
Noted textile manufacturer and retailer, Mr. S Sivakumar, MD, RmKV informed that a large
number of textile units in Tamil Nadu are now shut. In fact, manufacturing units is certain
nearing districts of Chennai, such as Kanchipuram and Aarani have been standing shut for
the pat one moth, amounting to a loss of an estimated 1 to 1.5 lakhs of sarees.
Give the negative factors that are looming over the overall textile industry of India, it is
hard to determine as to when normal functioning will finally resume. As of the current
situation, the onus of shielding the industry from incurring any further losses lies on the
shoulders of the textile sector of the southern states.