Bengaluru: As demand soars for Mysore silk sarees, Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation Limited (KSIC) is set to increase its manufacturing capacity.
Senior KSIC officials said a shortage of skilled workers had made it difficult to boost production and efforts were underway to train more people.
The manpower shortage was caused by the superannuation of skilled workers in the last few years.
“This is skilled work and production cannot be ramped up overnight. We are training more artisans. To weave high-end saris priced at Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh, workers need at least 12 years of experience,” KSIC managing director Zehera Naseem told DH.
Every artisan must undergo at least six months of training before probation period where they are assigned to work on simpler saris.
The KSIC can produce 370 sarees per day and has 16 retail stores — seven in Bengaluru (including one at the airport), six in Mysuru and one each in Channapatna, Davangere and Hyderabad.
The KSIC has now added 30 new E-jacquard machines at its weaving units in Channapatna and Mysuru.
“We are also adding three automatic reeling machines, three warping machines, 20 heavy duty looms, and one automatic weaving machine,” a senior KSIC official said.
In the last two years, KSIC has introduced 37 new designs and adopted a new colour palette, including pastel colours.
“This may have attracted more customers,” Zehera noted.
Videos of people queing up in front of a KSIC outlet in Mysuru during early morning hours keeps going viral every now and then. Most customers said they had no other option but to wait in the queue to get the saris.
“Once in a week, they start giving tokens around 7 am and people start queuing up as early as 4 am or 5 am. However, even after you get a token, you will have to wait till 10 am to go in and select sarees. We prefer to buy these sarees because they’re comfortable and elegant. There is no option, but to wait. We will wait and purchase,” said Sahana B, a resident of Rajajinagar in Bengaluru.
Many others also travel to Mysuru because the stock there is higher.
“We tried buying at the Bengaluru stores, but did not get the design and colours we were looking for. So we took a two-day trip to Mysuru. Though we still did not get what was in our mind, we got a better design and colour in Mysuru,” said Shyamala S, a resident of Kathriguppe in Bengaluru.