Rajasansi's rug units are disabled due to rivalry from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and considerable hike in prices of raw materials and requisite inputs.
Industrialists say they have been moving downward over the past 10 years and the future is bleak.
During1980s, the township of Rajasansi was prominent for carpet weaving.
In the last two decades, 30 per cent of the handlooms have shut down and now, it has more than 2,500 handlooms in the village employing 5,000 to 6,000 people, amid 70 per cent are women.
The weaving is done on contract basis at home. Carpet manufactured at Rajasansi is made of wool and the price ranges from Rs 150 to 200 per square foot compared with carpets made in Kashmir, which are made of silk.
Talwinder Singh Chawla in the business for the past 15 years, said, there was time when carpets made in Rajasansi acquired enormous admiration in the domestic as well as foreign markets.
Carpets made in whichever part of the country could not match Rajasansi carpets in quality and at such an affordable cost, Chawla has 120 handlooms and uses wool imported from New Zealand.
According to Chawla during the past five years the cost of raw materials has nearly doubled along with labour costs.
Above all they do not get suitable prices in the domestic market, because carpets from UP and MP are cheaper than carpets made here.
Gwalior carpets are made of staple having more lustre than wool and staple costs less which is considered duplicate silk added to it the labour is cheap.
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