Karnataka govt clears 14 SEZs

BANGALORE: The Karnataka government on Tuesday cleared 59 new industrial projects, including 14 SEZs,covering an estimated investment of Rs 63,561.24 crore, minister for Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu said.

Briefing reporters by the high-level committee chaired by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, he asserted that the government had informed investors while approving SEZs proposals that the onus of purchasing land directly from farmers wrested with them and not the state.

The HLC gave the nod for 16 IT/BT Parks, 10 IT/ITES SEZs, seven new sugar units, five steel plants, four tourism ventures, two software development units, two chemical units, one each of SEZ for electronic hardware, aviation, textile SEZ, FTW SEZ (Warehousing), Cement and BT SEZ, Naidu said.

These units, when commissioned, would generate employment for 9.11 lakh persons, he said.

Though the industrial units approved today are spread across the state including North Karnataka, a majority of them will come up in Bangalore Urban (15), Bangalore Rural (9), Mysore (7), Mangalore and Bellary five each.

The Committee approved a proposal by the state-owned Karnataka Power Corporation to establish two thermal power plants to produce 2500 MW of power, in Bellary and Raichur.

KPC would set up a 1000 MW capacity thermal unit in Raichur at an investment of Rs 4160 crore and a 1500 MW plant with Rs 6300 crore investment in Bellary, he said.