The Hindu Business Line : Chakan: From outback to auto hub

Pune March 15 It has taken 20 years for Chakan, a water scarcity zone that produced one annual crop of onions for export, to metamorphose from the outback into an auto hub. And with 1,800 applications for industrial land on the waitlist at Pune alone, the State Government has been galvanised into action.

Not only has the process of acquiring and developing land been expedited, but, with some specialty auto component manufacturers from across the globe amongst those waiting in the wings to make their entry, the Maharashtra Government is gearing up to the task of improving the infrastructure.

On the land front, the acquisition of 2,350 hectares more under the aegis of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is already under way, and that of another 777 hectares at the site of the earlier site of the Chakan international airport is in the planning stage. As an added incentive, 15 per cent of the land acquired after November 2006, will, as per a Government notification be developed and given back to the owner farmer at 50 per cent of the cost.

Upgrading infrastructure

Regarding improving the `ground realities' the immediate plan is to bootstrap the existing road network. Mr Rajiv Jalota, Chief Executive Officer, MIDC says, "We plan to upgrade the road to a 4-lane highway, and widen the bridge on the Indrayani river to six lanes." The road in question connects Ranajngaon to Chakan and Talegaon, and then to the six-lane Pune-Mumbai Expressway, the USP of the region.

A blueprint has also been drawn to take care of the three basic needs of industry - pani, urja, insaan (water, power, manpower), a derivation of the roti, kapda, maakan slogan. With ground water levels in the region perennially low, industries are forbidden from boring wells. So water is being piped from the Pawna river to the site. A project for sourcing power from the national grid is just in the construction stage and will be commissioned by the middle of 2009.

As for the manpower requirements, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed with Bharat Forge to train the local youngsters at the Khed Industrial Training Institute. Other companies in the process of signing similar MoUs are Videocon and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Atlas Copco, the first large company to set up base on 22 acres at Chakan to manufacture compressors in 1987, sold its plant 10 years later. It had invested Rs 6 crore in the venture (land cost was Rs 18,000 an acre) and received Rs 11 crore as sale proceeds. Today, the land price is pegged between Rs 28 lakh per acre (government land) and Rs 45 lakh (for private land). Biggies such as Volkswagen, Daimler Chrysler, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto have bought space. Amongst the auto component manufacturers, Kalyani Lemmerz has announced capacity expansion and a new facility. Bosch, Auto Lines, Minda are already there, and an European firm that specialises in heat treatment of engines, and another that manufactures special adhesives to sound proof cars are reportedly scouting for land.

A government source believes that it is only a few months before the supplier base in the Chakan-Talegaon belt will overtake that in north India.

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