Karnataka to make a ‘fab’ offer

Karnataka to make a ‘fab’ offer
CM To Meet Fab City Chief
The Times of India

Bangalore: Karnataka will go all out and top Andhra Pradesh by offering additional facilities to woo back the $3-billion silicon wafer-manufacturing Fab City, that has opted to go to Hyderabad.

A day after Union IT minister Dayanidhi Maran announced that the Fab City investors — SemIndia — had zeroed in on Hyderabad, CM H D Kumaraswamy told reporters here on Friday: “I will make all efforts to convince the Fab City people to come to Karnataka instead. I have already asked for a meeting with their chief, Vinod K Agarwal, when I visit New Delhi on Monday.’’

Kumaraswamy said the crucial difference between the Andhra Pradesh and the Karnataka offers to Fab City was the cost of power supply. “AP offered them power at Rs 2.25 per unit. We had not finalised the figure. That is the only difference.”

Kumaraswamy said Karnataka had three USPs that none of the competitor states had: a peaceful environment, a highly qualified workforce and no fears of natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes. “Karnataka is an investors’ haven. AP has severe Naxal problems, Tamil Nadu has LTTE. We don’t have any such issues. As for workforce, Visvesvaraya Technological University has agreed to start a P-G course in semiconductor, while a polytechnic in Mysore will have courses in the sector.’’

Besides, Karnataka had offered tax concessions, 1,500 acres of land at Thandya in Nanjangud taluk of Mysore district, a 64-MW power plant for 24-hour supply which will be a joint venture with SemIndia and no water supply charges for 10 years.

He, however, differed from deputy CM and industries minister B S Yediyurappa on how AP managed to beat the Karnataka bid. “I don’t blame the previous government. Everyone sent packages in December and the company preferred the Hyderabad bid. Such competition between states is good.’’

Yediyurappa made no bones about blaming the previous government. “It is because of the political flux in the past three months that all this has happened. The CM and I will convince the manufacturers to come back to Karnataka,’’ he added.

Bungling blamed
Why did the $ 3 billion Fab City slip from Karnataka’s hands? It is due to bungling by the finance department, who reportedly sat on the files for two months citing technical reasons, sources told The Times of India here on Friday. It is learnt CM H D Kumaraswamy took the finance department officials to task on the issue and asked them not to put obstacles to projects.