A MILESTONE: Vinod K. Agarwal (at right), President and CEO, SemIndia Inc., exchanging files with Lakshmi Parthasarathi, Principal Secretary, Major Industries, after signing MoU on Fab City in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Minister for Major Industries J. Geeta Reddy in Hyderabad on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: In a succinct response to TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu' statement that prestigious projects like the Fab City were coming to Andhra Pradesh because of the infrastructure developed by him, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy quipped here on Thursday: "I thank him for it."

He made a similar comment at a press conference after signing of an MoU for the proposed Fab City with SemIndia Inc.

Asked to react to Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's statement that he (Dr. Reddy) had played "a pro-active role" in clinching the project, he remarked pithily: "I am thankful to him."

He, however, gave the entire credit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Minister for IT Dayanidhi Maran.

For a moment, he had feared that Mr. Maran would take the project to Tamil Nadu, but Andhra Pradesh's advantages outweighed other considerations as far as the Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi were concerned.

Quick decisions

Also, his Government had taken quick decisions on extending concessions relating to land, power and water supply. Moreover, an additional 90 mgd (million gallons a day) of water was available in the city due to quick execution of the Krishna water Phase I in three years - two years during Mr. Naidu's tenure and one during his. Phase II for supply of another 90 mgd would be completed in a record time of 14 months, he said.

Interesting point

Speaking about infrastructure, Dr. Reddy made an interesting observation that it had access to three international airports - Shamshabad (near Hyderabad), Devanahalli (near Bangalore) and Chennai. Devanahalli, he said was 65 km from the IT centre in Bangalore but only 60 km from Andhra Pradesh border. He said this offered good possibility of developing Special Economic Zones at Penugonda and Hindupur in Anantapur district and developing industries in Nellore and Chittoor, which were close to Chennai.

Global city

SemiIndia Inc. President and CEO Vinod K. Agarwal said his company chose to invest in Hyderabad not only because it was emerging as a global city of India but also due to hard lobbying by the State Government.

Answering questions, he said a special purpose vehicle would be floated to secure various clearances for the project in which $ 1 billion would be invested in the first phase itself.

This phase would consist of the Test and Assembly line as also a Fab unit, which would manufacture 2.40 lakh wafers, each consisting of hundreds of smaller chips.

He said senior officials of Advanced Micro Devices, a company that was investing in the project, would visit Hyderabad soon.

Domestic market

His company would be initially looking at the domestic market but this would automatically generate demand from abroad, he said.

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