Foxconn wants JNPT land for factory

The world's largest contract electronics maker, Foxconn, has sought 14 acres for building a manufacturing unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust's special economic zone. 

The company has approached the Maharashtra government, which in turn has asked the shipping ministry to facilitate the request.

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to me and said Foxconn had sought 14 acres of land at JNPT SEZ," Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters at a conference here.

According to previous reports, Foxconn planned to set up a factory in Navi Mumbai. The unit may be set up at an investment of $20-30 million.

In August 2015, Foxconn had signed an initial agreement with the Maharashtra government for investing $5 billion in the state to set up multiple manufacturing facilities for products, including iPhones and tablets.

Gadkari said the government's ambitious coastal connectivity project Sagarmala had garnered over Rs 1 lakh crore investment from the private sector in the last three years. Investments of Rs 12-16 lakh crore were expected in the future, he added.

Sagarmala plans to reduce logistics costs for international and domestic cargo by Rs 35,000-40,000 crore a year. The programme is expected to mobilise more than Rs 7 lakh crore of infrastructure investment, double the share of domestic waterways, boost merchandise exports by $110 billion and enable creation of 10 million jobs, including 4 million direct jobs, in the next 10 years.

The government has planned six new major ports at Vadhavan, Enayam, Sagar Island, Paradip Outer Harbour, Sirkazhi and Belekeri.

As many as 14 coastal economic zones (CEZs) have been proposed covering all the maritime states and Union Territories. Perspective plans have been prepared and detailed master plans will be drawn up for five pilot CEZs in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in the first phase of development.