PM lays foundation stone for mobile manufacturing facility

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a dedicated mobile handset and electronics manufacturing facility in Tirupati.

Accompanied by Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and central minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, Modi laid the foundation stone for Shri Venkateswara Mobile & Electronics Manufacturing Hub.

Modi, who flew into the temple town from Vijayawada after laying the foundation stone for new Andhra capital Amaravati, spent a few minutes at the venue but did not speak.

According to officials, four mobile manufacturing companies -- Micromox, Celkon, Karbonn and Lava -- have come forward to set up their units in the facility which will be spread over 60 acres of land.

The hub is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs within a year and contribute at least 5 percent of all-India target of 15 lakh jobs by the year 2019.

According to Indian Cellular Association (ICA) president Pankaj Mohindroo, Andhra is fast turning out to be a preferred destination for mobile handset and component manufacturing companies.

"Foxconn has already started operations in Andhra Pradesh for manufacturing brands like Xiomi, Gionee. Other important brands like Micromax, UTL (Karbonn) and Celkon will be kickstarting their manufacturing operations soon," said Mohindroo, who is also chairman of Fast Track Task Force (FTTF), set up by the central government to promote mobile handset manufacturing eco-system in India.

ICA is also working with the Andhra government to set up design centres and incubation centres to establish the state as a truly global scale mobile handset manufacturing hub.