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First SEZ in TN to have modern backup facilities

G. Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, Feb. 9

THE country's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) coming up in Nanguneri in Tamil Nadu will have a head-start in deploying modern service platforms in a bid to stay ahead of the technology curve by removing inefficiencies inherent in existing infrastructur e.

Disclosing this, the main promoter of the Nanguneri SEZ, Advanced Technologies Manufacturing and Assembly City (ATMAC), Managing Director and CEO Mr Charles V. Loucks, told Business Line that from telecom to Internet-based technologies to power generatio n, water purification and chilling, the ATMAC would deploy `breakthrough technology platforms', thereby allowing companies to focus on creativity and innovation while producing world-class products.

ATMAC is a joint venture between the State-sponsored Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) and the IIG Mauritius Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of INFAC India Group (IIG), a California LLC. While ATMAC holds 99 per cent equity, the balance one per cent is taken by TIDCO, Mr Loucks said, adding that the company proposed to pump in $4.5 billion over a span of 15 years in developing the Nangunery SEZ.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, will lay the foundation stone for the Hi-Tech Industrial Park on Sunday with the Presidential address being delivered by the Union Industry and Commerce Minister, Mr Murasoli Maran, who announced the crea tion of SEZ in 2000 Exim Policy for the first time.

Mr Loucks said that within 24 months from February 11, 2001, the zone would begin churning out its hi-tech products as the emphasis is on enlisting top-class manufacturers in the fields of telecom and electronic components, bio-technology and pharma prod ucts, consumer durable goods, information technology, light/precision engineering. Globally famous firms such as CISCO, Intel and Nokia would set up shops here, he said.

Company officials said the entire project would be developed in phases based on the anticipated level of demand. Once buildable lots are finished, they would be sold to sub-developers who would construct factories, housing, schools and other support stru ctures.

While the first SEZ in Nanguneri is coming up in an area of 3,000 acre, the country's major SEZ located in Positra along the picturesque southern coastline of the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat. Spread over a massive 55,000 acre, the Positra SEZ would be ready with its first-phase completion by end-December 2004. It is promoted by the Gujarat Positra Port Infrastructure Ltd (GPPIL) with headquarters in Mumbai. An official of the company told Business Line that the recent earthquake in the Kutch would not disr upt the schedule of the project. ``The only area which seems unaffected in and around the world-famous Dwaraka is our SEZ in Positra'', the official said. Meanwhile, officials of ATMAC said the hi-tech industrial park being promoted by it in Nanguneri SE Z would be a self-sufficient municipality with its own sources of power and water, employing 1.50 to 1.60 lakh workforce. It would possess western-style housing, education, health and recreational amenities. The intention is to foster a city that would offer technology-based industry a location that rivals Silicon Valley in infrastructure and facilities, talented, low-cost workforce, supportive Government and a pollution-free milieu, the official said.

The company official said since the Tamil Nadu Government has designated the Tuticorin Corridor in the Southern part of the State as it focal point of advanced technology industrial development, the ATMAC project is in the epicentre of the Tuticorin corr idor. As the Tuticorin Airport is not adequate to handle the volume of traffic to be generated by the ATMAC, the Centre has requested that TIDCO privatise the airport and TIDCO has proposed that ATMAC assume control and development responsibil ity over the airport and the 600 acre surrounding it, the official said.

Alongside the major seaport in Tuticorin is being expanded to accommodate four times its present volume of container traffic. By March this year, the capacity of the port will be 16.5 million tonnes annually and the port can accommodate supertankers up to 50,000 tonnes and containerships up to 2000 TU. As the port is also served by rail which runs west to the city of Tirunelveli, TIDCO has agreed to expand the 40-km trunkline that directly links the ATMAC site to the national rail line.

Even as the country's first SEZ's foundation stone laying ceremony is scheduled on February 11, a booklet brought out by the Department of Commerce on SEZ for the occasion clarified that though the labour laws of the land would apply to all units inside the SEZ, the respective State Governments might declare units within the SEZ as public utilities and might delegate the powers of the Labour Commissioner to the Development Commissioner of the SEZ.