Article – Telangana woos aerospace majors to invest in SEZ near Hyderabad

20 February 2015
Mahesh Kulkarni
Business Standard
A day after Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu made a strong pitch for investment from aerospace and defence majors at Aero India, its neighbour Telangana also used the same platform to solicit investments.
Telangana, the youngest state in India, is expanding its existing aerospace special economic zone near Hyderabad international airport with an addition of 1,000 acres. “The Hyderabad Aerospace SEZ is the first exclusive park for aerospace companies in the country. We have identified 1,000 acres additional land to accommodate new industries,” industries minister J Krishna Rao told reporters.
Rao visited Aero India show on Friday along with a team of senior officials to seek investment in the aerospace sector. The team is holding a series of meetings with various industries at the air show, he said.
The Telangana government, which released its industrial  policy about a month ago, is hopeful of getting Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore from more than 20 applications received in the last one month, Rao said in a reply to a query from Business Standard.
“Our industries policy will ensure that all industrial projects applied in the state will get all necessary approvals within 15 days and MSME applications will be approved in a month’s time.” Rao said.
The Telangana government last November had announced its new industrial policy, which provides entrepreneurs right to time-bound clearance of business proposals, promising zero graft and proposing six industrial corridors and other initiatives. Rao said many such applications from investors were in the pipeline.
Under the new policy, all mega projects (with investment of Rs 200 crore) will get clearance in 15 days. The government had promised that it would punish departments concerned if they fail to clear the proposals in the stipulated time frame, Rao said.
“The Hyderabad region has attracted around Rs 25,000 crore investment in the last two years and the aerospace sector alone accounts for about Rs 2,000 crore,” K Pradeep Chandra, special chief secretary and commissioner for industrial promotion and mines, Telangana, said.
He said Hyderabad had emerged as the preferred destination for investors in defence and aerospace, and had public institutions relating to defence, including DRDO, BEL, BDL and ECIL in Hyderabad.
“Companies relating to aerospace and defence sector are well distributed in Telangana. Apart from the government establishments, we have large players in the private sector which are anchored by Tata Advance Systems. We have investments from companies like Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney and Sikorsky,” he said.
Hyderabad also enjoys locational advantage, most of the districts are 100 to 120 kilometres away from Hyderabad, which will benefit entrepreneurs in terms of business, according to Rao.
Moreover, Telangana, unlike other states, had a land bank of 250,000 acres for industrial purposes, Rao added.
Courtesy of the Business Standard