Fab City to be 2000 strong in 2 years

Kishore Kumar

HYDERABAD: Finally the semiconductor policy is out. SemIndia, quite obviously, will have the widest of smiles.

After overcoming initial hitches, SemIndia seems to be looking up. Reports on the company roping in new investors augurs well for its dream project – the $3 billion Fab City venture, a microprocessor and silicon chip manufacturing facility.

The company is ramping up its senior managerial team. Its commitment to ready the Assembly Testing Manufacturing and Packaging plant in 13 months indicates that it is in the comfort zone.

Before the announcement of the semiconductor policy, George A Shaw, the president and managing director of Assembly and Test of SemIndia, spoke to CyberMedia News about the future of the plant being built in the outskirts of Hyderabad.

With the first building of the plant in design, Shaw is already speaking about the growth of the plant, which he is heading. “The factory over the next two years would grow to about 1500-2000 people.

Shaw, who joined SemIndia recently, is a veteran in the industry with 30 years of experience.

He added that if necessary, the company also has plans to build a second plant in the future. And if the second factory sees the light of the day then Shaw’s assessment is that the plant could well become 4000-5000 strong in the next five-six years.

SemIndia recently received the environmental clearance for the Fab City project. Construction for the plant would start within a month or two.

To build the team, the manufacturing plant is roping in professionals from Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China.

“We are able to attract a number of key individuals who are currently working in other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China. They are core team leaders,” said Shaw.

The Fab City will also have a training facility. About three-four months’ training will be imparted from the facility, informed Shaw. AMD will also come into play with training facility besides providing technology transfer.

Shaw thinks that infrastructure poses a big challenge for the project but is confident that it would be overcome.

“We are working with the State government and they are bringing in new water lining dedicated to Fabcity. They are constructing sewerage system to drain the water properly,” said Shaw.

“Currently we are working with them on the power supply. This is another difficult area with the quality of electrical power. We would be getting the power, but even then we have to do some power conditioning,” he said.

Shaw also confided that a significant challenge he faces is to understand the officials.

© CyberMedia News