Till 5 years ago, Rajasthan’s Jalore was the node of the granite industry, but after granite industries were started to set up in Kishangarh with Jalore’s raw material, a challenge was posed to the industry here. During the industry’s heyday here, 500 to 1500 factories were set up, but in the last 5 years, the picture has changed. And while the 4 thousand crore industry including those of granite, slurry, and raw materials is operating here, the factories which ran on double-shifts are now running on single-shifts.
A major reason behind this downfall is the lack of connectivity, with the roads coming from Gujarat and Jodhpur-Jaipur being in poor conditions. Both a highway and highway services are far away. There are no trains running from here for Jaipur-Delhi or southern India. Hemendra Bhandari, Chief, Jodhpur Granite Association, said that the granite industry, providing 50 thousand direct and indirect jobs, is prey to poor infrastructure. Due to the absence of a highway, vehicles are not found. If 100 vehicles are needed, only 50 are found.
The fare is 30% higher too, and while the distance between Kishangarh to Mumbai is 1050 KMs, and from Jalore to Mumbai is 837 KMs, the truck fare is same for both the distances. Industrialist Ashok Parmar said that raw material is nearer from Jalore, labour is available too, but a major challenge is calling customers and transporting the goods.
