Land earmarked for EMC and semiconductor units awaits EIA clearance

The State government has earmarked 234 acres of land at Kochanahalli close to Kadakola near Mysuru for electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) and semiconductor units.

This is part of the second phase of Tandya and Kadakola industrial area development and a public hearing as part of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be held on July 8, 2024.

Suresh Kumar Jain, general secretary, Mysuru Industries Association said that the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has acquired the land and the public hearing will be held at 11 a.m. at Kochanahalli in Varuna hobli of Mysuru district.

He said EIA was mandatory for development of vast swathe of land and once the public hearing was completed and there was no objection, the land will be readied for allotment for potential investors in due course.

There was scope for 70 industrial units to come up and the entire swathe of land has been reserved for electronics and EMC units to give a fillip to electronic manufacturing for which Mysuru has emerged as a major player in recent years.

Jain said the industrial plots varying from half an acre to 10 acres are available for distribution and two major players in the field of electronics have not only evinced interest but their proposals have been accorded approval under the Single Window Clearance system so as to reduce the gestation period.

Apart from Mysuru-based electronic firms keen on expansion a Hyderabad-based entrepreneur has evinced interest in investing anywhere between ₹800 crore to ₹1000 crore in Mysuru and has explored the industrial area to assess the feasibility of establishing the unit for which nearly 50 acres was required.

The KIADB was keen to get the investment to Mysuru but the final decision of the industrialist will be based on various factors including availability of trained manpower, connectivity, the kind of incentives or subsidy that the Government will offer, etc, said Mr. Jain.
He said once the EIA is held and the report was favourable with no negative bearing on environment, the investment climate in Mysuru with respect to EMC units, was bound to improve further.

“We expect no less than ₹1000 crore worth of investment with the potential to generate 4000 to 5000 jobs. Besides, there will be an opportunity for more than 1000 students to get apprenticeship training,” said Mr.Suresh Kumar Jain.

Mr. Jain said industries based in Bengaluru were keen to expand their units in Mysuru as the land was relatively cheap. But there was also resistance from organised groups of farmers and activists against the conversion of agricultural land for non-purposes.

Critics have also reasoned that industrial plots which are still vacant years after allotment, should be reclaimed by the government and allotted afresh instead of persisting with new land acquisition which will have an impact on agriculture in the long run.

Incidentally, farmers at Kochanahalli are also on agitation since years as their land was acquired at a pittance by a private group with a promise of providing employment to them in lieu of surrendering their land. But no industry came up leaving the original land owners in the lurch. The Hindu