K'taka mulls global financial district

Karnataka government’s plan to set up a global financial district in Devanahalli has met with enthusiasm from the banking and finance community in the preliminary meeting. The district is being envisioned as a hub for financial institutions to cater to industrial banking and finance.

“We are looking at a public private partnership (PPP) or joint venture (JV) model for the district. We will provide the land and the companies would bear the infrastructure cost,” state minister for large and medium industries Murugesh Nirani said.

He said the government had identified 200 acres of land near Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli for the proposed district.

At a preliminary discussion organised by the government last week, senior officials from 45 banks, insurance companies and mutual funds attended and expressed their willingness to set up their offices there, Nirani told reporters.

He said the global financial district would enable industries to access finance for their projects in the state at one place as all the banks and financial institutions would be available.

With big ticket investments from companies like Arcelor Mittal, Hero Honda and Wipro expected to come into the state in the next couple of years, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) is looking to acquire around 50,000 acres to be allotted for industrial purpose. Of this, around 12,000 acres has already been acquired, he said.

“Depending on the area, we are acquiring land at prices ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore per acre,” said Nirani. He added around 5,000 acres of the 50,000 acres the state is looking to acquire could fall under the fertile land category which could be de-notified.

“If more than 20 per cent of a piece of land is found to be fertile, we will go ahead and acquire the land (for industrial purpose) only if we get approval of over 80 per cent of farmers,” said Nirani.

The state government in the recent past cleared major projects including the 6 mtpa integrated steel plant, pig iron, pellets and 750 Mw captive power generation by Arcelor Mittal for a proposed investment of Rs 30,000 crore and by Posco India, which intends to invest Rs 32,336 crore in its 6 mtpa finex steel plant. Other major investments are by Zuari Fertlizers & Chemicals, Relogistics Infrastructure and, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals.

He also said that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) was a priority for the state. For this, the Laghu Udyog Bharathi (LUB) — Karnataka, K and D Communication, Ministry of MSME and National Small Industries Corporation are organising the India Manufacturing Show 2010 (IMS 2010) from October 9-12 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bangalore.

The expo is expected to see participation of over 1,000 exhibitors.