The Hindu Business Line : CII moots creation of auto parks in TN

TN on the fast lane
Creation of `Automotive Parks of India Scheme'
Dedicated berths at ports for automotive industries
Formation of State marketing team to attract investments
Creation of manufacturing hubs, IT hubs across State
Infrastructure upgradation

Coimbatore , July 21

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu, has appealed to the state government to establish automotive industry parks on the lines of software technology parks.

It has estimated that there is potential to create 25 new industry and region-specific clusters in Tamil Nadu.

In a statement, Mr Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Chairman, CII-Tamil Nadu, said that the state should establish `automotive parks' in different regions to enable automotive companies to establish units. The government must launch `Automotive Parks of India Scheme (APIS)' on the lines of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) scheme to give a fillip to the industry, and ensure that the South India Test Centre proposed by the Central government was located in Tamil Nadu to meet the R&D, testing and homologation requirements of the state's automotive industry.

He suggested providing incentives for automotive companies that perform well in the Green Card System Export Promotion and Global Competitiveness Scheme.

The government should establish dedicated berths at existing ports and create special trade ports for each of the automotive zones, and ensure uninterrupted power supply for the auto parks.

He wanted the government to form `Tamil Nadu State Manufacturing Competitiveness Council' and a team consisting of senior government officials and prominent industrialists with a mandate to create `Brand Tamil Nadu' and market the state's capabilities to potential investors.

He felt that such initiatives would help the state leverage the success of Hyundai, Nokia and Saint-Gobain and attract large investments through a fast-track approach.

Mr Sanjay said that the CII has identified Madurai as having huge potential to become a manufacturing hub with Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli as satellite hubs; Tuticorin as an export cum service hub; and Madurai, Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar as knowledge corridors. Madurai, Kanyakumari and Ramanathapuram have the potential to become tourism corridors.

He said development of these industrial hubs/corridors would spur rapid industrial development. The key infrastructure projects to be taken up by the state included the development of Tuticorin port, six-lane connectivity between the manufacturing and export hubs, an IT park in Madurai and development of satellite industries like printing in Virudhunagar and tourism in Sivaganga.

Natural clusters

He felt that the government could take advantage of the natural cluster formation such as the fabrication cluster in Tiruchi, textile processing and chemicals in Cuddalore, foundry and auto component in Coimbatore, rubber and auto component in Madurai.

He wanted the success of Tirupur in textile processing to be replicated in Cuddalore, Madurai and Erode.

Mr Sanjay urged the state government to implement urban infrastructure projects in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, Salem and Tirunelveli to make them attractive destinations for knowledge industries, as has been done in Chennai.

More Stories on : Automobiles | Industry Associations | Tamil Nadu

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