Covid, land issues force industries to roll back plans

Job cuts

An aircraft parts manufacturer setting shop at the Aerospace Special Economic Zone at Devanahalli has decided to slash over 2,000 jobs against what it had initially promised, while increasing investment from Rs 480 crore to Rs 760 crore.

These changes are in contrast to the initial investment proposal cleared by the Commerce and Industries Department.

The firm, Goodrich Aerospace Services Pvt Ltd, was granted 25.4 acres of land on a 99-year lease and is set to commence commercial production from October 22.

Like this, some investors have gone back on their original plans in terms of operations and jobs, going by a slew of approval orders issued by the government this month.

Similarly, the establishment of “Integrated Township with Tech Park, shopping mall, hospitals, in-house residential apartments and clubs etc” at Doddanakalli village, Bengaluru East Taluk, was stuck since 2017 due to land issues.

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The township by GM Infinite Dwelling India Pvt Ltd had promised to generate five lakh jobs.

But now, only an “Industrial Tech Park for IT/ITES” will be set up and the company has a three-year extension to implement the project.

According to the government notification, Goodrich Aerospace Services Pvt Ltd was granted approval in 2019 to set up an “aircraft seats, passenger restraint system, aircraft evacuation system etc”.

The company, however, submitted a request letter in November 21, 2021, to increase investment and reduce employment from 4,000 to 1,750. The revised proposal was cleared by the State High Level Clearance Committee on April 14 and an order approving it was issued on June 13.

The second involved the integrated township planned at an estimated cost of Rs 4,795.9 crore first mooted in 2017. The project, proposed near a lake, was delayed due to the National Green Tribunal’s regulations on buffer zones and the challenges involved in acquiring land during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, GM Infinite Dwelling wrote to the government requesting it to change the integrated township — which was expected to provide five lakh jobs — to a tech park. The change was since the company could not acquire 1,000 acres of land required for the township.

The firm also sought a three-year extension to implement the project. These revisions were cleared by the government recently. Speaking to DH, Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner, Commerce and Industries Department, said that Goodrich Aerospace had to scale down production as the demand for their product was hit due to the pandemic. “They will expand their facility in 2023 and hire more people during the process,” she said.

Sources in the department, commenting on the integrated township-turned-industrial tech park, said the company had an option to convert it into a tech park as they owned the land. “For us, an industrial park is better than an integrated township,” the source added.