The Bhiwadi project had received initial approval for 100 acres almost 10 months ago, but financial closure has been achieved only for the first 50 acres
EB Bureau
Electronic Industries Association of India ELCINA has finally received the approval for its pilot model cluster project from the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY). The approval was granted during a meeting of the Steering Committee for Clusters held on June 11, 2015.
ELCINA had formed the cluster about four years ago when the Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) scheme was being drafted. The cluster is located in IA Salarpur at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan in the NCR and already has 20 members occupying industrial plots covering 26 acres.
The project had received initial approval for 100 acres almost 10 months ago, but financial closure has so far been achieved only for the first 50 acres. The project is divided into two phases of 50 acres each, under which ELCINA has applied for ₹200 million approximately as grant-in-aid for the first phase. With all formalities having been completed, ELCINA has taken possession of the first 50 acres and the project was launched in July 2015. The initial development activities, such as the land and soil survey as well as marking of boundaries, have commenced. The 50 acres of the second phase will be available after additional members join the cluster.
The grant-in-aid of ₹200 million from DeitY under the EMC scheme would be used to develop the basic infrastructure and common facilities in Phase I, including a centre of excellence, IT and telecom infrastructure, training centres, manufacturing support services and hostel facilities for employees.
According to ELCINA, there is a keen interest among potential members in the next phase and the association will be able to apply for the remaining 50 acres within three months of launching Phase I. There is good scope for more manufacturers to come forward to take advantage of this cluster.
B.S. Sethia, chairman of ELCINA Bhiwadi Cluster SPV said, “The Bhiwadi cluster has an important role to play in the government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives.”
DeitY launched the EMC scheme in 2012 to set up electronics manufacturing clusters (both greenfield and brownfield), wherein grant assistance to the extent of 50 per cent of the project cost, limited to ₹500 million, would be provided to the project.
ELCINA took a conscious decision four years ago to facilitate electronics manufacturing by enabling development of model clusters for the electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector. Initial approval has also been received for the second cluster coming up near Coimbatore, which is being developed by the ADD Group with the help of ELCINA. This is a larger cluster of over 150 acres. There is yet another project—the ELCINA-Raaga Mayuri cluster in Ananthpur, Andhra Pradesh near Bengaluru, which too has received initial approval from DeitY and is awaiting launch in two to three months. This approval is still provisional and an official document in this regard is expected very soon.
“The Bhiwadi cluster is the first greenfield EMC set-up by an electronics industry association under DeitY’s EMC Scheme 2012. It would be the first to start functioning amongst the 200 planned clusters under the National Policy for Electronics, and would establish Bhiwadi as an emerging ESDM destination in the Delhi-NCR area. Moreover, the project will create enormous employment for the local people through the establishment of high-tech small and medium industries.
—B.S. Sethia, chairman of ELCINA Bhiwadi Cluster SPV
