Telangana makes a strong pitch for industrial growth

 Sai Nikesh | The Dollar Business

K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana, addressing industrialists and delegates at the first ever conference of The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Telangana chapter.

  The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Telangana chapter, conducted its first-ever conference on Wednesday and the event was fully focused at mapping industrial growth in the newly formed State of Telangana. The Conference titled “Mapping Industrial Growth by Tapping Sectors of Advantage in Telangana,’ exposed the potential of various sectors of Telangana that could help the State in achieving industrial growth on par with the other Indian States. Speaking to The Dollar Business, on expected outcome of the Conference, Vanitha Datla, Chairperson, CII Telangana (Interim Council) & Executive Director & CFO, Elico Ltd, said, “The Conference will definitely create and spread awareness on the industry potential of the Telangana, thereby encouraging industries and attracting investors.” This initiative would also promote the need for development of manufacturing sector and entrepreneurship in the industry, she added. She further said that this conference showcases the State government’s willingness to work with industries by providing them clean power, required land, treated water and on a whole, a business-friendly environment. When asked about the scope for investments in the new State, Vanitha Datla said, “Countries like US, UK, Sweden, Australia and Singapore have already expressed their willingness to invest in Telangana State and a similar interest is expected from other countries in the future.” On the infrastructure development, she said the State is expecting more collaboration with countries like Japan and Dubai. When asked on the State government’s key expectations from the Union Budget, she expressed about the Repealation of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) by saying, the implementation of that would ease cash flow process for companies in the case of making re-investments and also expressed hope about the early implementation of Goods and Services Tax. Speaking at the event, K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana, explained various growth perspectives of the State and also informed about the projects being taken up the State government to foster the industrial sector of the State. For this purpose, Rao assured the industries of providing required land, water and power support for their projects. In this regard, he informed the State has got a land bank of 20 lakh acres embarked for industries and said one and half lakh acres of that was made immediately available for the industries for resuming their projects. Ensuring the government’s commitment towards overcoming power challenges which is a key for achieving industrial targets, the Chief Minister assured a round-the-clock power supply from May. Explaining the government’s long-term plans in this regard, Rao said the State will achieve 7779 MW power target by the end of 2015, 10,509 MW target by 2016 end and 11,345 MW target by the end of 2017 including solar power, 2400 MW hydel power and 20,336 MW power target by the start of 2018 along with 2000 MW of solar power target. He further informed about the 40,000 crore worth power project to be executed by Telangana Genco and Singareni to boost the power potential of the State. The National Thermal Power Corporation will also supply power to the State in accordance with the Centre’s order, Rao added. By achieving these targets, the CM said ‘the Telangana State will be made a power-surplus State by 2017’. On the developmental projects, the CM stressed on the need for boosting electronic hardware manufacturing in the State and also informed about providing needed incentives to the industries in this regard. To this effect, he informed that 35,000 acres of land around Rachakonda Gutta has been allocated for development of electronic hardware sector, Cinema city, among others. He further informed about setting up of International-level Pharma University and a Pharma City in over 11,000 acres area at Mucherla, while also referring  to the project as the one being eagerly awaited by international players. A Textile park at Warangal in over 2000 acres, industrial parks for Aerospace & Defence, Food Processing, Gems & Jewellery, among others, would also be set up, he added. The Chief Minister also said, ‘10% of State’s water supply will be dedicated to industries.’ The CM informed about the State government’s project of constructing a water pipeline covering more than 1 lakh km, adding that the Korea Water Company was also part of the project. Stressing on the government’s commitment towards ease of doing business, the Chief Minister said the State government is committed to provide a graft-free, transparent and a business friendly administration. For the fast approval of the projects, the CM said the State government allows single window clearances, assisted by the ‘Chasing Cell’ in Chief Minister Office, with a period limit of 15 days for approval of mega projects and also informed about the self-certification based approvals for investors.  

This article was published on March 11, 2015.