A scheme has been devised for Indian power loom units. Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) will procure energy efficient power looms, motors and rapier kits and give them to small and medium power loom units at no upfront cost.

The use of these efficient equipments would result in energy saving and cost saving to the unit owner and he would repay in installments to EESL over a period of four to five years. The aggregation of demand and bulk procurement will also lead to a reduction in capital cost, the benefits of which will be passed on to power loom units so that their repayment amount and period would reduce.

The initiative will be implemented on a pan-India basis. Plain power looms are being upgraded. They are being attached with process control equipment. This leads to higher productivity, better quality and more than 50 per cent additional value realisation. So far, 1.70 lakh plain power looms have been upgraded.

The power loom sector in India is predominantly an unorganised on and has a large number of micro and small units which produce 57 per cent of the total cloth in the country. There are 24.86 lakh power loom units in this country, most of whom use obsolete technology.