North to get more industrial villages

Plans are under way to open more industrial villages in the North, Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Douglas Devananda said.

Speaking at the opening of a coir factory set up by the Industrial Development Board at Rs 5 million in Allare Village, Chavakachcheri, under the Mahinda Chinthana Rekiya Bihidora program, Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Devananda said 1,000 villages had already been ear-marked to establish and develop industries suiting their localities.

Allare and Vathiri Villages in Jaffna District too come under this program, the Minister added.

Minister Devananda said the Co-operative Society in the village was granted Rs 500,000 earlier to improve agricultural farming.

Their demands of a vehicle to transport coir related products, a store house and a sales outlet too, would soon be granted, he said. The 35 employees recruited to the factory will be trained by the Industrial Development Board while monitoring of the factory will be done by the Industrial Development Board.