Nokia plant: Adding numbers

Just 18 months ago, when B. Santhanam, Managing Director, St Gobain India, confidently cited that Tamil Nadu would become a nodal point for the electronics and hardware industry in the country, the declaration was greeted with a generous dose of scepticism. It's not as if the state's capital, Chennai, has been a stranger to electronics and hardware; it's a thriving industry but only till the small-scale level. Not any more, and it's not just Chennai but districts on its outskirts that are grabbing chunks of the action. One such area is Sriperumbudur, a taluk just 44 km from the city, spread over 226.85 sq km, which gained international (in)fame when former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated there. St. Gobain itself located in Sriperumbudur completed its second phase of expansion for Rs 900 crore in this town.

It is no exception. Sriperumbudur has attracted around Rs 10,000 crore worth of big-ticket investments with more than 60 per cent of this coming in the last six months, and the remaining in the last 18 months. Nokia, which announced an investment last April of $200 million, has already got five vendors of the promised eight in its special economic zone (SEZ) of 210 acres in Sriperumbudur. These include the Aspocomp group which by itself is investing $200 million in phases to make high-density interconnections printed circuit boards. The Nokia SEZ is expected to provide employment to 20,000 people. More recently Flextronics committed another $200 million, has got 200 acres allotted and has built up an area of 200,000 sq ft. It plans to recruit 3,000 people and relocate some 1,000 employees from other units in Bangalore and Pondicherry.

Motorola, Dell, Samsung, Salcomp, Solectron and ZTE are some other names that have been allotted land in the Sriperumbudur hi-tech park spread over 2,400 acres, all of which has been booked. The State Industries Promotion Corporation is now trying to create another park within the taluk of a similar size. "The crowds thronging here (for applications and information) is more reminiscent of street shows than a government office," points out M. Palani, Senior Project Manager in charge of developing the region. "I am crowded out of my seat, but I don't mind," he quips. Adds M. Velmurugan, Director, Guidance Bureau: "We have a committed announcement of Rs 4,500 crore from the mother units, and ancillaries could contribute twice the amount.''

Along with hardware, the auto sector too is silently making strides in Sriperumbudur. In the nearby Oragadam Industrial Park, 2,040 acres have been sold out within 18 months. In the last three months, Hyundai announced expansion plans of Rs 2,750 crore, Apollo Tyres committed Rs 520 crore for a radial unit, and Delphi-TVS will invest Rs 500 crore. A number of Korean and Japanese companies have set up shop as component suppliers.

-Nitya Varadarajan