Sans ‘experience’, over 10L PPEs useless

Sans ‘experience’, over 10L PPEs useless

Melvyn.ReggieThomas@timesgroup.com

Surat:02.07.2020

Lakhs of personal protection equipment (PPE) kits that could have shielded thousands of frontline health workers from Covid-19 infections are gathering dust in the godowns of textile manufacturing units in Surat.

Reason: The online tenders on the government emarketplace (GeM) by various government departments, organizations and PSUs now has a special clause of ‘experience criteria’ ranging from 1-3 years for the suppliers of PPE kits.

Sensing a business opportunity after directives from the union textile ministry, at least 15 textile companies in the city to diversify into manufacturing PPE coveralls using the non-woven fabric. However, two months after making lakhs of PPEs, these units have suddenly become ineligible to sell the kits to the government, which is biggest buyer, as they don’t have the mandatory ‘one-three years experience.’ After research and development during April, the actual production of PPE kits started in the first week of May. In Surat alone, about 50,000 PPE suits were manufactured per day, which included coated and laminated suits with 100% breathable technology.

Shalin Vaidya, director of Sachin GIDC-based Rudra Digital Solution, a garment manufacturing company, told TOI: “We made significant investment for manufacturing 10,000 PPE kits per day. However, except for few private orders, we haven’t been able to make a bulk deal with the government agencies due to the experience criteria in the online tenders.”

Sanjay Saraogi, managing director of Laxmipati textile group, which has the capacity of making 5,000 PPE kits per day, said, "In April, the textile ministry had called for the indigenous manufacturing of PPE kits to lower dependency on import. We had no inkling that they require experience.”

Pramod Chaudhary, chairman of Pratibha Group, said, “Our PPE kits are approved by South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) and they are made out of laminated non-woven fabrics. In the government tenders, apart from the experience criteria, there is no mention of the laminated PPE kits. We are unable to make the PPE kits due to utter confusion.”

Mandatory experience criteria of suppliers has rendered huge losses

All the PPE kit manufacturers in Surat are either manufacturing fabrics, saris or garments. They don’t have any experience of making PPE kits. The government should keep the quality as criteria.

Jitendra Vakharia |

PRESIDENT ,SGTPA