Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company, has evinced interest in setting up a facility in Karnataka.

“We have shown the company a few land parcels in and around Bengaluru,” said Gaurav Gupta, Karnataka Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T, in an interaction with BusinessLine .

“But the State government is keen on housing it in Chikkaballapur, where land parcels were also shown to the company, for the district has been identified for setting up mobile phone components cluster,” he added.

Since the company is also exploring other States, Gupta was tight-lipped on the negotiations and other benefits the Karnataka government is planning to offer the company.

Another Taiwanese facility

Another Taiwanese contract manufacturer of iPhone range of phones for Apple, Wistron is to shortly open its greenfield manufacturing facility at Narasapura industrial area in Kolar district.

“The new facility built at a cost of ₹1,500 crore is expected to be opened soon and is likely to manufacture smartphones and IoT products for global major Apple,” said Gupta.

“The company initially operated out of a rented facility in Peenya industrial area in Bengaluru. After getting 43 acres allotted by the State government, it has built its modern manufacturing and assembly line, which is 4/5 times capacity that of Peenya facility,” he added.

Last year, a high-level delegation of Wistron had visited Bengaluru and took possession of the land allotted at Narasapura industrial area. The company officials while interacting with Chief Minister H D Kumarawsamy, had said the manufacturing facility would be built in two phases with a total outlay of ₹3,000 crore and, when fully operational, would create 10,000 jobs.

The company is likely to use the facility to set up new assembly lines for Apple.

KJ George, Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries, IT and BT, Science and Technology, had said the State government had exempted the company from the 99-year lease-deed rule as the company was paying the market rates.

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