No big ticket investment projects in Karnataka yet

Bangalore, Dec 3 (IANS) Big ticket investments for which the Karnataka government signed agreements with various stakeholders during the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM 2012) in June in this tech hub are yet to take-off, according to a progress report released Monday.

“Only 14 projects, with a combined investment of Rs.4,351 crore have been implemented during the last six months and 31 projects worth Rs.10,000 crore investments are under construction, while 200 projects are at various stages of implementation,” state’s Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industry, M.N. Vidyashankar admitted to reporters here.

The second GIM edition, held June 7-8 during the tenure of then chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, attracted a whopping Rs.7.2-trillion (Rs,7.20-lakh crore) worth investment proposals from 7,557 companies from across the country and overseas through 246 agreements, 415 expression of interests (EOIs) and 90 return on investments (ROIs) and commitments from 6,806 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, with an employment potential for 1.9 million people.

“The 14 projects implemented so far have generated about 5,000 jobs in diverse sectors such as energy, transport infrastructure, biotech and pharma, textiles and apparel, engineering, automobile, cement and other minerals and agro, food and horticulture,” Vidyashankar said.

Of these projects, Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd made the largest investment (Rs.1,655 crore) to set up its first phase of plant at Gulbarga in the northern region of the state, about 650 km from Bangalore, while for other projects, investments range from Rs.3 crore to Rs.500 crore.

Similarly, of the 31 projects under construction, investments for three are above Rs.1,300 crore and for the remaining 28, they range from Rs.10 crore to Rs.582 crore.

Leading steel major JSW (Jindal Steel Works) Project Ltd has invested Rs.2,400 crore to set up a 1.2 million tonnes per annum direct reduced iron (DRI) plant, 3.4 million tonnes per annum coke dry quenching plant and 70mw power plant at Bellary, about 300 km from Bangalore.

The other two projects with four-figure investments are Bosch Ltd, which spent Rs.1,500 crore to set up a pulverised fuel (PF) and injection pumps plant at Ramanagara, about 40 km from Bangalore, and Rs.1,350 crore by Honda Motor Cycle & Scooter India Ltd to set up a plant to manufacture scooters and motorcycles.

“We have, however, received commitments for big ticket investments in 85 projects in the range of Rs.1,000 crore to Rs.25,000 crore across 17 sectors and are at various processing levels, including clearances, identification of land, creation of infrastructure support and eco system,” Vidyashankar pointed out.

Among the sectors are energy, iron & steel, IT & electronics, cement & other minerals, automotive, industrial infrastructure, aerospace & defence, biotechnology & pharmaceuticals, chemical & petrochemicals, engineering, agro, food & horticulture, textiles & apparels, housing & urban development, tourism and transport.

IANS 2012-12-03 21:00:18