Background: Stone Artisan Park (Dhrangadhra, Ambaji)
India is the largest producer of Stone in the world accounting for 30% of world production. The Indian stone industry has grown at a healthy clip of 10% p.a. in recent years. The industry is not limited to building or architecture. There are outdoor and indoor artifacts/accessories and utility articles involving stonecraft. Stonecraft is a 2800 year old tradition in India. South India , Orissa, Rajasthan and Gujarat are the regions where stonecraft is concentrated. The stonecraft work has grown well in Gujarat. Ambaji and Dhrangadhra are the established clusters. Traditional skill, entrepreneurial drive and local availability of Stone have contributed to industry growth.

However in Gujarat, industry has suffered on account of inadequate infrastructural facilities and sub optimum working environment. It is a space intensive industry, it has undergone three phases of relocation at Dhrangadhra because of town-growth, documentation, common machinery and high-end tool facility, display centre and sales outlets are the building blocks of a growth-inducing environment for this industry. It is a human resource centric industry because it is the imagination, creativity and skill of artisans which infuse particular dynamism into the industry. Excellence of supply, in case of stonecraft work, whets the demand.

The Govt. of Gujarat has been alive to the constraints which slow down the pace of industry growth as well as to its potential for rapid growth and accelerated employment generation. It decided therefore to set up Stone Artisan Park at Ambaji and Dhrangadhra to fast track industry growth and to ensure orderly and pleasant development. Training to meet human resource requirement of the industry is an integral part of the objective underlying Stone Artisan Park development.