The Department of Electronics and Information Technology has approved two greenfield Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) in Hyderabad with an outlay of Rs 940 crore, according to Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister for IT & Communications.
A proposal to set up a third EMC at Paravada, Visakhapatnam in about 100 acres is also under consideration. “The Union Government has given in-principle approval to set up two EMCs in Hyderabad and another proposal to set up one more EMC in Paravada, Visakhapatam is under consideration,’’ he said.
The first cluster will come up at eCity, earlier called Fab City, on the outskirts of Hyderabad in about 602.37 acres including an SEZ in 263 acres and non-SEZ in 339 acres. It is expected to create 35,000 jobs directly and 2.1 lakh jobs indirectly. The second EMC will come up at Maheshwaram and will be spread across 310 acres with an outlay of Rs 360 crore and a potential to create direct employment for 14,000 and indirect employment for 84,000.
“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 EMC will be eligible for various incentives provided by the state and the central governments,” the minister said.
In its bid to boost electronics manufacturing, the state government had last year unvieled a new Electronics Hardware Industry Policy 2012-2017. As of 2009-10, electronics manufacturing in AP stood at Rs 6,500 crore, including Rs 650 crore worth exports.
The industry boasts of 300 units and employs over 60,000. The state ranks fifth in the national electronics industry and contributes 7.5 per cent of production. According to estimates, domestic manufacturing companies can expand production to $100 billion by 2014.