The Hindu Business Line : TN road development agency to handle Guindy estate facelift

According to the President of the Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association at Guindy, Mr K. Gopalakrishnan, the members along with State Government agencies have promoted a special purpose vehicle,

The Guindy Infrastructure Upgradation Company, for the project.

The company is headed by the Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation, and includes representatives from the Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation, Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and a representative from the manufacturer's association, who are all on the board.

The members of the manufacturers' association are to contribute Rs 3 crore, with the Central and State governments chipping in Rs 2 crore each and the Chennai Corporation Rs 1 crore.

The balance is to be raised through loans from the Small Industries Development Bank of India or from the State Government, which has earmarked funds for infrastructure development, Mr Gopalakrishnan said.

Discussions are on with TNRDC to implement the project. This will involve setting up basic infrastructure including relaying roads, renewal of drinking water supply systems, sewerage systems, storm water drains and putting up rainwater harvesting structures. TNRDC will identify the contractors and handle the project and quality monitoring, he said.

Though the fund raising is yet to pick up momentum, largely because of delay in the members contributing funds, Mr Gopalakrishnan said, he was optimistic that the project would commence in February and be completed by September.

The problems in members' contribution was the financial constraints that many small industries were facing, and also because over 40 per cent of the total area of over 400 acres is held with public sector enterprises or government agencies. In addition, some of the larger players are yet to fork out the funds despite having committed to paying.

These include companies in automobile manufacturing, information technology and telecommunications, according to Mr Gopalakrishnan.

Once the project is completed the operation and maintenance would be through the industrial township authority, which would be empowered to collect property tax, professional tax and licence fee.

The authority would retain 70 per cent and the balance would be paid to the Chennai Corporation, he said.

Upgradation of basic infrastructure facilities has been long overdue in the industrial estate, which has over 500 industrial units, which employ over 50,000 workers.

The industrial estate includes a wide range of industries with interests in engineering, plastics, leather, garments, electronics, software and telecommunications.

However, infrastructure facilities have all but broken down. There have been cases when foreign buyers who were to visit manufacturing facilities within the estate have refused to get down from the vehicle because of the poor condition of the environment, he said.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page