Hyderabad pips Bangalore to play host to India's first fab

Hyderabad gets India's first Fab city
SemIndia selects Hyderabad over Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Cyber Media

BANGALORE: Andhra Pradesh pipped Karnataka to the post to land the Fab city project which will mark India's foray in the area of semiconductor manufacturing.

SemIndia chose Hyderabad as the location in a closely contested selection process that included three Southern states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

According to Dayanidhi Maran, union minister of communications and information technology, Karnataka was a very close competitor while Tamil Nadu's claim was lukewarm.

"Andhra Pradesh government proved faster and more proactive than Karnataka," Maran said. Some of the factors that were taken into consideration for the selection included availability of land, water and electricity.

He estimated that the Fab city would create employment opportunities for15 lakh people.

SemIndia, headed by Vinod Agarwal, is a consortium of investors including Government, which plans to manufacture advanced semiconductor chips for personal computers, cell phones, set top boxes and broadband connectivity.

Around 1200 acres of land around Hyderabad will be alloted for the Fab city. "The real journey for the industry begins now. We will provide all the support they need," said Maran.

Chip major AMD's chief Hector Ruiz has already committed to an agreement to with SemIndia to manufacture and license the company's technology.

Maran also said that he plans to continue discussions with Intel for an assembly-test-mark-pack (ATMP) plant in India. The minister was confident that though India is still far behind Taiwan and China in manufacturing capabilities, India could still catch up.

Besides semiconductor manufacturing, Maran said that he is making efforts to bring in flat screen display and hard disc manufacturing to India.