State fast-tracks Chennai-Bengaluru Indl Corridor

The Karnataka government is fast-tracking work on the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) with a focus on automobile and defence projects.

In an interaction with DH, Department of IT, BT & Science & Technology and Industries & Commerce Principal Secretary Gaurav Gupta said, the project is on track with the signing of Shareholder’s Agreement (SHA) and State Support Agreement (SSA) in July.

“The state government signed and registered a special purpose vehicle with the Central government in July 2018 for the execution of the project and the node. The first meeting of the SPV will be held in November 12,” he said.

Gupta said the CBIC, a 560-km-long corridor in the line of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, is spread across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, including metro cities Chennai and Bengaluru.

“The project will have five large-scale industrial corridors to further strengthen manufacturing. Karnataka will have only one node linking Tumakuru,” he said.

The Karnataka government signed the agreement with the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) for developing the industrial corridors in the country. The Central government formed NICDIT in 2016 under the administrative control of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Tumakuru node

Gupta said the master planning for the Tumakuru Industrial Node is being taken up through M/s Jacobs Consultants. “Further action would be taken up by the SPV, based on their recommendations in next three months.”

“We are happy to find that the corridor will have more automotive and defence companies. Already we have Scania, Volvo and Honda running their plants. Mahindra Aerospace has also began their production facility here. More OEM suppliers are expected to set up their facilities on this corridor,” he said.

Tumakuru is also declared as the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ). Machine Tool Park and Japanese Industrial Township have also come up in Tumakuru, which has been selected for Smart Cities project. “Already Japanese companies have began operation from there and more companies are in the pipeline,” said a Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) official.

The corridor when completed will attract an investment of $181 billion, and generate employment for 22 million skilled workers over the next two decades.

The Central government is planning aggressively to raise the contribution of manufacturing sector to the GDP from the current 15% to 25% by 2022.