SRI CITY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SEZ

SRI CITY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SEZ
Chennai
The Hindu Business Line The Financial Express

Sri City (P) Ltd formally announced the launch of a 5,000-acre multiproduct SEZ and domestic tariff area at Tada to the north of Chennai.

Announcing the project on which work is expected to start in August, the Sri City Chairman and Managing Director, Ravindra Sannareddy, said that the project coming up in a public private partnership mode with the Andhra Pradesh Government is a fully notified SEZ. It is expected to involve a development cost of over Rs 1,000 crore for the common industrial infrastructure.

When fully functional over the next five years, it will house over 300 industrial units with a total investment of over Rs 17,500 crore and generate over a lakh jobs directly, apart from 1.75 lakh indirect jobs. The SEZ area is about 3,800 acres and the DTA is about 1,200 acres. It will cater to a range of industries including auto ancillaries, light engineering, IT and ITES, logistics warehousing, gems and jewellery, food processing, biotechnology and other environment friendly industries.

Sannareddy said that with its location on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border, about 55 km north of Chennai, the SEZ on NH 5, has the advantage of access to the Chennai international airport and Tirupati airport, apart from the major sea ports of Ennore and Chennai, and the Krishnapatnam Port.

The Andhra Pradesh Government is facilitating the project and the units will have the benefit of a single window clearance – a facility in which the State is a pioneer.

Over 10 international and domestic units have signed up to set up their facility in SEZ and work on these units is to start simultaneously with the work on the SEZ next month, he said.

The Andhra Pradesh Minister for Major Industries and Commerce, J. Geeta Reddy, said that the State Government has a balanced focus on knowledge-based industries and the manufacturing sector. In the last four years the State has emerged the second largest destination for investments – next only to Gujarat – with an investment of more than Rs 17,000 crore with an additional Rs 38,000 crore in the pipeline. It has applications representing over Rs 78,000 crore of industrial investments.