BHUBANESWAR: The State Government plans to develop Maniabandha Buddhist village as a model weaving village. Under the project, Government aims at ensuring overall development of weavers who are famous for their unique weaving style.
The project envisages a state-of-the-art common facilities centre, a raw material bank and better connectivity. The raw material bank will be set up by Utkalika.
Sources said a project management unit will be constituted by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) to coordinate the entire project till it is handed over to the village committee.
Maniabandha under Badamba handloom cluster is famous for traditional tie and dye products of ‘Khandua’ design and home to 2,822 weavers. There are 891 looms and 91 master weavers whose annual turnover is over Rs five crore. At least 100 sarees are produced in the village every day.
Sources in the Handloom and Textiles Department said besides infrastructure development, convergence of programmes like development of village roads, provision of old age pension and schemes of other line departments will be taken care of.
Earlier, the Ministry of Textiles had decided to develop the Badamba cluster for textile tourism as it is located close to Maniabandha and Diamond Triangle of Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udaygiri.
A typical ‘Khandua’ silk saree comprises unique motifs like multi-petalled flowers, elephants and Lord Buddha surrounded by trailing vine with peacocks. The craftsmen do not weave the motifs in borders and a single silk thread is used in weaving the fabric.
The place has immense potential for textiles, Buddhist heritage and rural tourism, said Secretary of the Odishan Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies Sunil Patnaik, who is associated with conservation of Buddhist sites across Odisha.