A hitech park to manufacture computer hardware
is likely to be set up in Nandeneri, 8 km from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) along with two
American companies is planning to invest about $ 150 million in the park.
Tidco will hold 11 percent of the equity base of the new venture. Infact
India Limited, an Indian subsidiary of a US company, and Access
Technologies are the two other US companies that will hold the remaining
89 percent of the equity in the venture.
"The park will have be similar to that of the Tidel park in terms
of space and infrastructure. While Tidel's facilities support software
companies, the Hitech Park in Nandeneri supports hardware manufacturing.
The financial closure for the project is expected within the next six to
seven months," said Tidco CMD R. Gopalan.
Some of the facilities arranged by Tidco for the park's operations are
infrastructure, drainage, water, clean rooms. The hi-tech park promoters
will also ensure a pollution free atmosphere in a 10-km surrounding area.
High end hardware such as silicon wafers, semiconductors, components for
hard disks drives, etc, are some of the items intended to be manufactured
in the park.
Transport facilities to the proposed park site are likely to be beefed
up by the upgradation of nearby Tuticorin airport to international
standards by the Airports Authority. The city also has a port while the
train line is being upgraded to broad gauge. The national highway, which
passes through Tirunelveli, is soon to be upgraded to a four-lane highway.
Once companies, either MNCs or domestic, set up manufacturing bases here,
hardware assembling units will soon come up in neighboring cities like
Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore and Chennai. Accordingly the government has
also reduced the sales tax for these hardware products. However, the
excise duty for these products still remains a hurdle for the industry. By
manufacturing these products in the country, the market is expected to
boom upto 200 percent while the prices of these products are expected to
decline by half.