The Kerala Government has proposed to develop manufacturing investment zones covering Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram districts.
K.S. Srinivas, Secretary (Industries), said that this would be in addition to the three industrial development zones in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.
Manufacturing hubs such as IT and electronics hardware, medicine and medical, food processing, engineering, petrochemical, and green energy and waste management have been identified under the proposed manufacturing investment zones, he said.
He was making a presentation at the State Integrated Investment Promotion (SIIP) session on Kerala at the Suminfra 2013, seminar on sustainable PPP’s in Infrastructure organised by the CII at Chennai.
Low operational cost, high quality of life, stable world-class physical and social infrastructure, simple procedures and a friendly government make Kerala an ideal destination for investment, he said.
IT hubs
In the IT sector, he said, the State has developed three hubs Thiruvananthapuram (Technopark), Kochi ( Infopark and Smartcity) and Kozhikode (Cyber City). Several new projects were planned as spokes of these hubs.
For electronics hardware manufacturing, it had set up an Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Kochi under the EMC scheme of the Central Government. About 75 acres has been identified for the project, which is estimated to cost around Rs 250 crore.
Another major investment zone in Kerala, he said was the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) at Kochi with the BPCL’s Kochi Refinery as the catalyst. The refinery would be enhancing its annual capacity to 15.5 million tonnes from the present 9.5 million tonnes. The refinery would supply several base products for downstream petrochemical projects.
Road network
In the road sector, he said the government has embarked on a massive State Road Network Development Programme, through the State Road Improvement Project for the development of state-of-the-art road network by improving the existing State Highways and important major district roads.
T.Balakrishnan, managing director, INKEL said that a start-up revolution has started in Kerala under the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiatives. The Technology Business Incubator has so far incubated 182 companies with more than 90 per cent success.
The SIIP session on Kerala was moderated by G.C. Gopala Pillai, Chairman KELTRON.