The Hindu Business Line : AP may convert entire Fab City into processing zone

Hyderabad, May 23 In what could be a major relief to companies like Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Videocon Group and a couple of others, the Andhra Pradesh Government is considering earmarking the entire 1,200 acres in Fab City on the outskirts of the city as a processing zone.

“The State Government, in the original proposal had earmarked a portion of the land as a non-processing zone. But following shortage of land around the area, the Government has been forced to do away with this proposal and is considering the amendment,” an official told Business Line.

Out of the total land available in the area, 412 acres has already been allocated to various companies and around 180 acres has been taken back by the Government for the proposed outer ring road. “At most, with the current land bank available, we can allot a further 200 acres but if the non-processing zone is also converted as a processing zone then a further 300-325 acres can be allotted to companies in the future,” the official said.

He added that the demand for land within the Fab City project had attracted a lot of interest from solar PV (photovoltaic) cell manufacturers. “Last week five more companies have been allotted another 64 acres taking the total number of companies to whom land has been allotted so far to 16,” the official pointed out.

According to him, Mirc Electronics and NCS Sugars have been allotted 25 acres each, while Air Liquid and BOC have been allotted five acres each and Radiant Solar, four acres. All the companies are said to have shown interest to manufacture solar photovoltaic (PV) cells while NCS Sugars will also produce silicon vapours in its facility.

Originally, the Fab FAB City was established to accommodate the semiconductor facilities and allotted 100 acres to the anchor unit SemIndia. It is being developed at Thukkuguda, in the Maheshwaram mandal near Shamshabad on the outskirts of the city.

However, since SemIndia could not attract major chip manufacturers, it was later decided to offer land to companies interested in manufacturing of solar PV cell manufacturing units.

Apart from SemIndia other companies that who have been allotted land in the Fab FAB City are Surana Ventures, Chandradeep Solar, Neotech Solutions, Solar Semiconductor, Titan Energy Systems, XL-Telecom and Energy, KSK Energy Ventures, Embedded IT Solutions (India), Chandradeep Solar, Neotech Solutions, Photon Energy Systems, Surana Ventures and Rama Terra Solar.

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