Proposed Mysuru's T Narsipur stadium likely to be death blow to KSIC mother unit

Since it's risky for children, relocation likely inevitable; re-establishment tough

Mysuru: At a time when the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC) has plans to double its production to cater to the demand for the GI-tagged Mysuru Silk sarees, which has doubled over the past five years, it is losing its five acre prime land on its silk filature premises in T Narsipur.

The proposed stadium on the said land, is likely to be risky for children with boilers used in the filature. If this mother unit of the KSIC, established in 1912 by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, has to be relocated, it will become a death blow to the Mysuru Silk saree itself, as the filature's re-establishment is very tough.

They may even lose 552 trees on the land nourished by the filature, as it needs 30 per cent tree cover to act as a buffer zone to avoid the heat and foul smell.

As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced a sports stadium worth Rs 6 crore in T Narsipur in the 2025 budget, the Assembly constituency of Mysuru district in-charge Minister H C Mahadevappa, the department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) has taken over the land. 

General Manager of the silk filature unit S K Manjula said, "This raw silk reeling unit in T Narsipur is the mother of two silk weaving units in Mysuru and Channapatna. Here we process 1,500 to 2,000 kg of cocoons to 250 to 300 kg silk yarn per day.

Due to the increase in demand, we have plans to expand it and double the production. We have two units and 200 staff. The unit is spread on 12 acres of land and has 5tph (tonne per hour) and 2tph boilers, wherein 4 to 5 tonne of coal from Andhra Pradesh is processed per day.

"We need 2 acre of land to dump cinder ash generated from coal. The unit location in T Narsipur is ideal mainly because of the water availability, Kapila River. If the stadium comes up, there will be no route to transport coal. The stadium is planned without a scientific survey. Stadium is also important for a town, but it can be built anywhere. Since this land is crucial for the KSIC, the officials have appealed to the higher ups, to save it," sources said. 

KSIC MD Zehera Naseem said, "We appealed to the government to retain the land for the expansion of our own unit. But, since it is a government enterprise and land, we could not do much. We would be happy to have our prime land back to KSIC".

Bhaskar Naik, Assistant Director of DYES, said, "The khatha of the land has been changed to the DYES name, four months ago. We looked for an alternative land in Korlahalli, which is 12 km from T Narsipur, but finalised the KSIC land. We are preparing a DPR. We will try to retain the green cover and make it eco-friendly".

Meanwhile, Parashuramegowda of Parisara Balaga said, "There are 5 to 100 year old trees here". 

DCF, Mysuru territorial division, K Paramesha and RFO of T Narsipur H Umesh said that they have not received an application for permission to cut trees, so far. 

M K Savitha, T Narsipur taluk in-charge KAS officer, said, "I will hold a meeting with the officials. We will do our best to retain the land for KSIC."