The Hindu Business Line : Rs 11,000-cr investments planned near Chennai

Snapshot
Investments to be made in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam region, near Chennai, within the next couple of years.
About one lakh jobs are likely to be created.

Our Bureau

Chennai, July 23 Investments of about Rs 9,000 crore, that will lead to creation of over one lakh jobs, are expected to be made in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam region, near Chennai, within the next couple of years.

These investments will come from the vendors of Nokia (Rs 3,300 crore) and Flextronics (Rs 2,500 crore) and commitments from industries in the two Special Economic Zones promoted by the State Government, viz., SIPCOT Sriperumbudur Hi-Tech SEZ (Rs 1,976 crore) and SIPCOT Oragadam Hi-Tech SEZ (Rs 1,300 crore). This is in addition to the Rs 650-crore investment of Nokia, Rs 450-crore of Flextronics and Rs 270 crore of Dell.

Including the ‘mother units’, total investments of close to Rs 11,000 crore are to be made in the region.

This was disclosed by Mr K. Rajaraman, Special Secretary, Industries, Government of Tamil Nadu, at a seminar on SEZs, organised by the Industrial Economist magazine, here today.

The employment figures furnished by Mr Rajaraman add up to about 1 lakh both direct and indirect.

Pointing out that 72 SEZs had been granted formal approvals for Tamil Nadu, Mr Rajaraman said that 46 of them are in the neighbourhood of Chennai. Seven are near Coimbatore. The remaining SEZs are spread across 12 other districts in the State.

Again, 37 of the SEZs approved for the State are for the IT/ITES sector. As many as 27 are product-specific SEZs, while the remaining eight are multi-product SEZs.

Mr Rajaraman said that the 72 SEZs include 8 that are operational.

These eight, including the MEPZ, employ 41,000 people. MEPZ alone employs 26,000.

Three of the other SEZs are located in the Mahindra World City, Maraimalainagar, near Chennai.

Mr Arun Nanda, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, said that by 2010, the units in Mahindra World City would employ 85,000 people.

Dell project

Mr Rajaraman said that the $60-m (Rs 270 crore) project of Dell Inc would commence production on July 31.

Earlier, the State Industries Secretary, Mr Shaktikanta Das, said that Dell, which has a manufacturing plant at Penang, Malaysia, could have easily imported computers into the country. India’s SEZ policy was a big factor in Dell deciding to put up a unit here, he said.

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