Tata's Assam plant to make 48.3 mn chips per day with native tech: Vaishnaw

Tata Group's semiconductor plant in Assam will produce 48.3 mnore chips per day using indigenously-developed technologies, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Chairman of Tata Sons Limited N Chandrasekaran on Saturday performed the Bhumi pujan of the Rs 27,000-crore semiconductor assembly and test facility at Jagiroad in Morigaon district.

The project was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 29, 2024.

"The construction of the plant has started in short span of five months after the project was approved. It will manufacture about 48.3 mnore chips per day. The unique thing about this plant is that all the three major technologies which will be deployed in this plant are developed in India," Vaishnaw said.

The minister said that the chips manufactured at the Tata plant will be used in vehicles including electric vehicles, and practically every large company will be using their chips.

Vaishnaw said the communication and network infrastructure, every large company manufacturing 5G, routers etc. will be using these chips.

"Semiconductor is a foundational industry. Whenever a semiconductor unit comes there will be many more downstream employment which will get created and there will be many more upstream, because the ecosystem is so complex that a lot many units come the moment a mother unit comes," Vaishnaw said.

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran at the Bhumi Pujan ceremony of the factory said the chip assembly plant in Assam will create 27,000 jobs, including 15,000 direct and 12,000 indirect employment opportunities.

The plant is expected to become operational in 2025.

The minister further said that a major part of the India Semiconductor Mission is to develop 85,000 talent, and nine institutes in the northeast has started working on developing talent for the semiconductor industry.

He said NIT Silchar in Assam, NIT Mizoram, NIT Manipur, NIT Nagaland, NIT Tripura, NIT Agartala, NIT Sikkim, NIT Arunachal Pradesh and two institutes in Maghelaya -- North Eastern Hill University and NIT -- are involved in talent development for semiconductor industry.

"Our prime minister has always emphasized on "Act East" policy and very important milestone in our semiconductor programme has today been achieved in Assam, where the construction work on the semiconductor unit has started," Vaishnaw said.

Besides the semiconductor chip assembly and testing plant in Assam, Tata Electronics is also setting up India's first wafer fabrication unit in Dholera, Gujarat. The plant will have the capacity to produce 50,000 wafers per month and involve an investment of Rs 91,000 crore.

The first chip from Tata's Dholera plant is expected to be out in December 2026.