State proposes seven SEZs for global investors’ meet

State proposes seven SEZs for global investors’ meet

DH News, Subrahmanyan Viswanath, May 19,

Bangalore: With D-date for Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) approaching near, project proposals are flying off drawing boards fast and furious. The State government is working overtime to make the most of the two-day meet to woo as much investment as possible.

So much so, as many as seven Special Economic Zone (SEZ) proposals besides two industrial parks have been lined up for global and domestic private players participating at the GIM. Of the seven SEZs, three are Information Technology (IT), one each in aerospace, textile, food processing and pharmaceutical sectors.

PPP initiative

According to official sources, Expression of Interest (EoI) have been invited for implementation under public-private-partnership (PPP) initiative as part of government’s ambitious Suvarna Karnataka Development Corridor (SKDC) programme. For implementation, selected bidder (individual entities / consortium) will be responsible to plan, design, build, finance, opearte, manage and maintain them, besides marketing and branding. While IT SEZs will come up at Dharwad, Kolar and Mysore, aerospace SEZ is planned at Bangalore Rural, textile, food and pharmaceutial SEZs at Hassan and industrial parks in Bidar and Gulbarga.

The aerospace SEZ at Devanahalli, sources said, will house units focused on providing IT, design, R&D services and MRO (maintenance, repair & overhauling) facilities on a 252 acre plot. While processing area would comprise facilities for aircrafts, helicopters, IT & design services, avionics services and manufacture of aircraft components, non-processing zone is for ancillary developments like training institutions and research centres.

IT SEZs at Dharwad, Kolar and Mysore will come up on 30 acre plots and house both IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) units. The pharma SEZ on 270 acre area in Hassan is aimed at building quality facilities to attract global and domestic tenants.

Processing area

The textile SEZ over 581 acre plot in Hassan will have processing area of 65 per cent to house textile and related industries like weaving, garments, spinning and related service sector units, household and technical textiles etc. The food processing SEZ at Hassan will come up on 285 acre plot for exported oriented units.

The industrial parks in Gulbarga and Bidar, planned on 200 acre and 300 acre plots respectively, sources said is envisaged to house MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) units across a range of manufacturing sectors serving as hub for MSME manufacturing.

The engineering park at Chitradurga on 200 acre plot will house steel ancillary units like auto components, surgical and hospital equipment, architectural products, hardware, kitchenware, lifestyle products, stamping and forging. At Tumkur, it will come up on 500 acre plot focused on machine tools / precision tools, industrial machinery, hardware, industrial fasteners et al.

DH News Service

* IT SEZs: Prososed at Dharwad, Kolar & Mysore.

* Aerospace SEZ: Bangalore Rural

* Food, Textile & Pharma SEZ: Planned at Hassan

* Industrial parks: To come up in Bidar & Gulbarga