Express News Service
First Published : 04 Feb 2010 04:54:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 04 Feb 2010 12:00:19 PM IST
ALAPPUZHA: Kerala’s own coir industry may soon find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with the Travancore Cocotuft (P) Ltd, a 10-year-old export-oriented unit at the Coir Park in Thiruvizha here, unveiling a 333.3-ft-long handloom coir doormat, which the company claims is the world’s longest one.
At a press conference at the company here on Wednesday, CEO P Mahadevan said the doormat - 101.6 metres long, 1.2 metres wide and 30 mm thick and weighing 999 kg -- was produced by four workers over a span of four months, inserting 4,70,000 coir tufts between alternate wefts of coir yarn. The total cost of the work is over Rs 4 lakh.
The doormat was the brainchild of Mahadevan, who was inspired by SIDBI’s Alappuzha BDS project implemented by Cluster Pulse.
The mat will be displayed at the exhibition being held as part of the golden jubilee celebration of the Central Coir Research Institute (CCRI) at Kalavoor here.
The CCRI celebration will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for MSME Dinsha Patel on Thursday in the presence of Coir Minister G Sudhakaran.
“In spite of the fact that the coir industry is facing a plethora of problems, including scarcity of raw materials and shortage of skilled workers, due largely to labour migration to the construction sector, our mission was to draw the authorities’ attention to this crisis-ridden traditional sector,” Mahadevan said.
He said he wished to exhibit the doormat, a dream come true for him, at the Buckingham Palace and before President Pratibha Patil.
Later, it will be handed over to the Coir Museum.
Cocotuft was set up in 2000 as a subsidiary of the Travancore Mats and Matting Company at Cherthala.
No comments:
Post a Comment