The textiles ministry on Monday said ten more design resource centres are being set up by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to help the handloom sector.

These centres, being set up at weavers' service centres in Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kannur, Indore, Nagpur, Meerut, Bhagalpur and Panipat, would facilitate weavers, exporters, manufacturers and designers to access design repositories for sample/product improvisation and development, it said.

These will be set up in a phased manner.

Such design centres have already been established at weavers' service centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Jaipur and Varanasi.

The ministry said over a period of time, each weavers' service centre has accumulated a large number of handloom designs and samples.

Set up in 1986, NIFT is the pioneering institute of fashion education in the country.