Setting up of EMCs in Hyderabad

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology at the Centre has approved setting up of two Greenfield Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) in Hyderabad with an outlay of Rs 940 crore.

The first cluster will come up at eCity (formerly called the Fab City) on the outskirts of Hyderabad in an area of 602.37 acres.

The Electronics Industries Association of Andhra Pradesh has "committed" to invest major part of the estimated Rs 1,800 crore investment in eCity, according to State Information and Communications Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah.

The eCity EMC, which would have an SEZ area of 263 acres and non-SEZ area of 339 acre, is expected to create 35,000 jobs directly besides providing indirect employment of 2.1 lakh people, the Minister told reporters here.

The second EMC that would come up at Maheshwaram in Ranga Reddy district would be spread over 310 acre and would be developed at a cost of Rs 360 crore.

"We are trying to attract investments from industry associations in tune with the state electronic hardware policy announced last year. Those setting up units in the EMCs will be eligible for various incentives provided by the state and the central governments," Lakshmaiah said.

The Maheshwaram EMC is expected to attract an investment of Rs 800 crore and create direct employment for 14,000 people, besides indirect employment for 84,000.

The IT minister said proposal for setting up a third EMC at Paravada in Visakhapatnam in an area of 100 acres was under the consideration of the centre.

"We are now witnessing an information technology revolution in the country and hardware is critical to it," the minister said.

There are already 300 electronic hardware manufacturing units in the state doing a business of Rs 6,500 crore. There are already six brown-field electronic clusters in existence in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Chittoor, Krishna and Visakhapatnam districts. These units too can now avail of the incentives under the Hardware Policy, the Minister added.

Information Technology secretary Sanjay Jaju was also present on the occasion.