Mysuru:  A Khadi Urban Haat will be set up at Vijayanagar 3rd Stage soon, said Karnataka State Khadi and Village Industry Board (KSKVIB) Chairman Yaluvahalli N. Ramesh.

He was addressing a press conference at the Government Guest House here yesterday and said that the State stood first in Khadi in the country.

The State Government has released Rs.4.19 crore to set up the Urban Haat, which will provide a market for handloom weavers and producers of handicrafts in and around the region.

The Khadi Urban Haat will be built in the one acre of land in the possession of the Board. Also, Khadi Plaza will be set up in Bengaluru and Belagavi at a cost of Rs.10 crore and all Khadi products will be made available under one roof.

Fashion show: The KSKVIB has taken up several initiatives to brand Khadi products and for the first time, the Board had organised a Khadi Fashion Show on Feb.11. It will be a regular feature from next year and will be organised at different places in the State to promote khadi products, he said. According to Ramesh, the Board, in association with the National School of Fashion Designing, has been offering designing courses for khadi artisans to produce variety of designs.

The Board has also decided to adopt e-trading to sell the products and plans to launch website about the products in another six months. In order to encourage people involved in khadi industry, the Board has been offering stipend of Rs.8 per metre for weaving the fabric, he added.

Khadi Centre of Excellence at Badanaval: Khadi institution at the historic Badanaval (where Gandhiji visited) will be made a Centre of Excellence. There are already four khadi outlets in four international airports in the country and in the next one year 100 more are going to be opened, said Chairman for Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Vinai Kumar Saxena.

He was addressing a media conference at the Government Guest House here yesterday and said that the Central Government through the Khadi Commission had opened shops in four centres including Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam and in stages it will be opened in other airports across the country.

In 2017, it had turnover of Rs.2,700 crore and in 2018 it is likely to go up to Rs.3,000 crore. The Centre has taken many steps to revive Khadi Gramodyoga and in the last one year it has achieved a progress of 26 per-cent. The plans are afoot to develop Khadi industry that is there in Badanaval in Nanjangud taluk to a Centre of Excellence, he said.

The KVIC has joined hands with KSKVIB and come up with various projects. The Asian Development Bank has given a grant of Rs.95.50 lakh and 15 looms and 50 new spinning wheels (charaka) have been distributed at Badanaval, he said.