Odisha electronics park likely to attract Rs 1K cr investment

Odisha government is expecting around Rs 1,000 crore investment in the proposed Greenfield Electronics Park, spread over an area of 203 acres, in the state capital.

The park is ready to house around 100 units of electronics manufacturing cluster with state-of-the-art, infrastructure and common facilities, state Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said.

The cluster has been given final approval by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in a high-level meeting held on June 17 at New Delhi, he said,

The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) is developing the park and master planning has been done by Jurong Consultants, Singapore, Mishra said.

Core infrastructure like road, provision of power and water for the park is almost ready and finalised. "It is expected to attract an investment of Rs 1,000 crore," he said.

The state government has given 203 acres land in Iarapur and Durgapur of Khurda district and providing around Rs 110 crore.

Electronics manufacturing has been recognised as one of the five focus sectors to attract investment. The state has formulated attractive investor-friendly policies such as Industrial Policy Resolution 2015 and ICT Policy 2014 to facilitate and incentivise investors in electronics manufacturing sector, the minister said.

In addition, the state has a Special Incentive Package Scheme which provides incentives to electronics manufacturing companies over and above the m-SIPS scheme of the Centre.

The project envisages to create an attractive ecosystem for electronics manufacturing industry in the state and boost employment opportunities for the youth in the state.

"Ready-to-use plug-and-play facilities are proposed to be set up in the park with excellent transport connectivity through air, rail and roads," he said.

This apart, Bhubaneswar is considered an ideal location for the park because of abundant skilled manpower made available through reputed technical and management institutions. The city has also topped the Smart City Challenge of the central government from amongst the 97 other cities and is emerging as one of the most preferred cities in the country to live in and do business, he said.

Many national and global companies in electronics sector have shown interest in setting up manufacturing facilities in Odisha. The state had received interest from various companies during the Odisha Investors' Meet held on February 14 and 15 at Mumbai where Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led a delegation to project the new business opportunities and investment ecosystem in the state.

Industries and Electronics and IT Departments are working in tandem to make this Greenfield Electronics Park a reality by developing global standard infrastructure which will attract investment near the capital city.

In the joint road show of Electronics and IT and Industries Departments recently at Silicon Valley, USA. And earlier in Taiwan, many investors have evinced interest to put up their manufacturing facility which will generate employment in Odisha, an official statement said.

Around 10,000 skilled and semi-skilled persons will be engaged in future, said Pranab Prakash Das, Minister, Energy, & Electronics & IT.