The Hindu Business Line : TN special economic zones get going

`Manufacturing corridor'
Flextronics Technologies will invest Rs 430 crore over a five-year period.
The total employment in Mahindra World City is 3,862 so far, and they have generated Rs 337.52 crore in exports.

Sriperumbudur , Nov. 20

The industrial profile of Tamil Nadu is getting transformed unobtrusively but decisively by the first batch of newly sanctioned Special Economic Zones, with world majors in telecom and information technology segments, and reputed domestic manufacturers of auto components and textiles pitching for space here.

A group of journalists from the Capital visiting the emerging "manufacturing corridor" located some 50 km west of Chennai, saw Nokia manufacturing plant set up at a cost of $150 million producing mobile handsets and base station controllers.

Mr Jukka Lehtela, Director India Operations, said that Nokia has been able to cross the milestone of manufacturing the 20 millionth `Made in India' handset in a short span of 11 months. He said that Nokia was the first equipment vendor to manufacture both devices and network equipment, and export to South East Asian countries.

Nokia & Flextronics

Nokia already employees 3,500 people here, mostly women, in the production of handsets and has tied up with six component suppliers, including Salcomp, Apscomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Jabil and Laird in the Nokia Industrial Park spread over 210.87 acres. The employment to be generated by these units would be more than 15,000 in three years' time.

Mr Lehteka was full of praise for Chennai, given the city's large pool of skilled resources and conducive business milieu, but also highlighted the need to create transport and other infrastructure to leverage this growth and to create manufacturing eco system.

Flextronics Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd, which has set up the Flextronics SEZ here in 250 acres, would invest Rs 430 crore over a five-year period by undertaking advanced electronics manufacturing services (EMS) focused on delivering supply chain services to technology companies.

The Director and GM of India operations of the Company, Mr A. Gururaj, was gong-ho about the zone's potentials in mobile phones, set top boxes for conditional access system (CAS) and base stations for infrastructure. By co-locating manufacturing and logistics operations onsite with strategic suppliers, the Flextronics SEZ would minimise logistics costs throughout the supply chain and improve the manufacturing cycle many times. He said the company completed the construction work of the first phase early this month and would begin commercial production next month.

Third SEZ

The third functioning SEZ is the Mahindra World City located on National Highway 45 and just an-hour drive from Chennai city, being developed by Mahindra Gesco Developers Ltd with a proposed investment of Rs 280 crore out of which it had already invested Rs 236 crore. The Chief Operating Officer, Ms Anita Arjundas, said three companies out of the 17 granted permission are already working here and they include Infosys Technologies Ltd, Nera Electronics (I) Pvt Ltd and Srinvasa Fashion Exports.

The total employment in this SEZ is 3,862 so far and they have generated Rs 337.52 crore in exports during the first half of 2006-07. She said, eventually, the zone would employ 50,000 persons and absorb investment of Rs 5,000 crore, and generate export turnover of Rs 8,000 crore annually by 2010.

Fourth SEZ

Another SEZ being developed by way of the country's largest infrastructure provider for IT and BPO enterprises is by ETL Infrastructures Services Ltd with equity participation by IL&FS. The company has acquired 26 acres of land in Pallikaranai village on the outskirts of the city, where the first phase of 12.9 lakh sq ft has been completed and the whole space for operation has been booked by big names like TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Tata Teleservices, Bharati Televenturs Ltd, Essar Telecom Retail Ltd and Siemens Information Processing Services Ltd.

The Director of ETL Infrastructures Services Ltd, Mr C. Ramachandran, said the company is commencing the second phase of the project on 2.5 million sq ft, which would be operational by September 2007. He said the IT Park would eventually employ 40,000 graduates, besides providing indirect job by way of security services, food and beverage, courier and transport services. It will have a foreign exchange potential of $800 million every year by way of exports of software and other services.

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