Auto makers evince interest to invest in Orissa

After steel, aluminium, power and cement, now biggies in the automotive sector have evinced interest in investing in Orissa. Tata Motors, Fiat and John Deere are mulling to set up their manufacturing bases in Orissa, given the state's stable political climate, investor policies, availability of skilled manpower, enabling infrastructure cheap and productive labour as well as a healthy GDP growth in the past few years.

A high level delegation of the state government which was recently on a visit to Pune, the hub of the country's automotive industry, has got some positive signals from the auto majors.

"Tata Motors, Fiat and John Deere have evinced interest in setting up their manufacturing bases in Orissa. These auto majors have assured us that the would definitely keep Orissa on their investment radar while pursuing their expansion plans and this is a positive development”, C J Venugopal, chairman and managing director of Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) told Business Standard.

Apart from Venugopal, the state industries secretary Saurabh Garg; chairman and managing director of Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) Priyabrata Pattnaik and veteran business leaders of the state who were part of the delegation, made a detailed presentation to the prospective investors.