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Thiruvananthapuram, June 17

THE Kerala Government has drawn up a blueprint for facilitating the setting up of 25,000 new small-scale industrial units in the State in the current year.

Styled `Kerala Local Industry Promotion Programme (KLIPP)', the initiative is intended to create one lakh employment opportunities by providing all the assistance to the entrepreneurs who come forward to set up the units.

The registration of the units will begin on July 1 and the project will be formally launched on August 15, according to Mr Ibrahim Kunju, State Industries Minister.

He said here on Friday that the Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion (K-BIP) would hold awareness campaigns and seminars to identify potential entrepreneurs, while the Kerala Institute for Entrepreneurship Development (KIED) would provide training and guidance to them.

Once the entrepreneurs have been identified, the special cells functioning at District Industries Centres will prepare detailed project reports for starting the units. The cells will also facilitate single-window clearance for the units; negotiate with financial institutions and banks to ensure availability of finance to them; extend subsidy and margin money assistance of the Industries Department to the units; and provide technical guidance to the entrepreneurs.

In view of the major projects such as Vallarpadam container terminal and LNG terminal coming up in Kochi, the Government is also planning to extend help for starting small-scale units in ancillary and service sectors in the neighbouring districts of Thrissur and Alapuzha. The Industries Department will undertake detailed studies in this regard.

The Minister said the department already had 1,500 project reports with it, of which, nearly 1,000 were related to the service sector.

He said projects worth Rs 217 crore, for which memoranda of understanding were signed at the global investors meet held in Kochi in 2002, had been completed. Other projects with a combined investment of Rs 3,140 crore, which are also in the MoU list, are at various stages of implementation.

Referring to the public sector undertakings, he noted that the budget had set aside Rs 50 crore for the rehabilitation of sick units. Of this, Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company, Traco Cable Company and Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation have been sanctioned Rs 3.48 crore, Rs 5.21 crore and Rs 17.89 crore respectively for swapping of loans taken by them from Kerala Industrial Revitalisation Fund. Besides, Rs 7.37 crore has been sanctioned to Chittoor Cooperative Sugars for implementing a voluntary retirement scheme in the unit.

The Government has initiated steps to raise the daily capacity of Travancore Cochin Chemicals from 150 tonnes to 175 tonnes. The company, which was making losses since 1997, has come out of the purview of Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction after the Government implemented a revival package.

The Minister said that the Government had taken a policy decision to help the sick public sector units that could be revived with a one-time infusion of funds. A Cabinet sub-committee has been entrusted with the task of chalking out the approach to these units on the basis of the recommendations made by the Enterprises Reforms Committee, which was wound up recently.

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