Dharwad FMCG cluster to create five lakh jobs: Jagadish Shettar

The proposed FMCG cluster in Dharwad is expected to generate five lakh jobs with a turnover of over Rs 25,000 crore, Karnataka Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar said Friday, adding that the government would “actively” pursue this.

Shettar was speaking after receiving the ‘Transform Hubbali-Dharwad: Vision 2020-2025’ document prepared by the government’s FMCG vision group headed by Jyothy Labs joint managing director Ullas Kamath.

The government, in its 2020-21 budget, announced a “home and personal care consumer goods manufacturing” cluster in Dharwad.

“We set up an FMCG vision group to explore the opportunities and come out with a document, which we will study and discuss with various stakeholders,” Shettar told reporters. “We’re actively pursuing the FMCG cluster to attract investments and generate large-scale employment to north Karnataka,” he said, adding that Hubballi-Dharwad would be the FMCB hub in south India.

According to Kamath of Jyothy Labs, the development of the FMCG cluster will have three phases, with each one comprising investment of Rs 2,500 crore from 50 FMCG companies. “Each phase will generate 50,000 jobs, with 80% of them reserved for locals and half of them being women. Each phase is expected to occupy an area of around 500 acres,” Kamath said.

Besides creating five lakh jobs, the cluster targets aims to achieve 35% economic growth of the Hubballi-Dharwad region by over the next five years, the government said.

The Hubballi-Dharwad region was identified for the FMCG cluster because of its connectivity with the consumer markets of Bengaluru, Belagavi, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, Shettar said.

Recently, Karnataka unveiled its new industrial policy (2020-2025) that aims to generate Rs 5 lakh crore investment and create 20 lakh jobs by offering a slew of incentives and concessions. Under the policy, Dharwad will be the first special investment region (SIR) encompassing Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Belagavi districts. Shettar, a former chief minister, represents the Hubli-Dharwad Central assembly constituency.