The union cabinet Wednesday approved the launch of a new integrated processing development scheme for the textiles sector that will cost Rs.500 crore during the 12th five-year plan.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the scheme under which four to six brown field projects and three to five green field projects will be established.

"The scheme will facilitate the textiles industry become globally competitive using environmentally-friendly processing standards and technology and create new processing parks," an official statement released after the cabinet meeting said.

"This scheme will support the upgradation of existing processing clusters/centres specifically in the area of water and waste water management and also encourage research and development work in the textiles processing sector," it said.