The first phase of the ambitious ship building and repair yard off Chennai, slated to be the largest in Asia, will be ready next year.
Making this announcement in the Assembly here on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said more than 10,000 persons would get jobs because of the project. The total cost of phase one was Rs.3,375 crore and total investment, Rs.4,675 crore.
A joint venture of Larsen and Toubro and TIDCO, the ship building yard was coming up at Kattupalli in Tiruvallur district. It would build very large cargo carriers, specialised cargo ships for liquid/gas transportation and cruise vessels, defence ships and submarines and off-shore platforms for oil/gas sectors.
It would also undertake refitting and re-engineering of commercial and defence ships and heavy engineering fabrication and components production for ship building.
Mr. Stalin said the petroleum refinery project of Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Limited (6 million tonnes per annum capacity; Rs.6960 crore investment) would be commissioned by the end of 2011. The refinery would make the State self-sufficient in petroleum products. The Thiruchopuram port, the captive port of the project, would be developed into an all-weather deep-sea port to handle crude oil, petroleum fuel, coal and other cargo.
Work on the IT-ITES SEZ with integrated international convention centre at Taramani had just begun. A total of 4 million sq.ft. would be built, out of which 2.1 million sq.ft. would be for IT/ITES. Of this, 1.25 million sq.ft. built-up area under the processing zone was expected to be ready by December 2011. Construction of the remaining IT space as well as service apartments and convention centre would also be taken up during the period. The entire project would be completed by May 2012.
Financial city
Tenders for the selection of a developer for the first phase of Financial City to be developed on about 25 acres (first phase) would be opened on Tuesday, Mr. Stalin said, in response to a question from C. Gnanasekharan (Congress). A total of 187 acres had been identified to set up the City in Sholinganallur–Perumbakkam villages. Out of this 25 acres would be used for establishing the Media and Entertainment Park.
Mr. Stalin said IT parks in tier–2 cities were in various stages of completion. The 1.7-million sq.ft. Coimbatore IT park would be ready by the month-end. The Madurai IT/ITES SEZ would be ready by September. The Tirunelveli IT/ITES SEZ and the Tiruchi IT/ITES SEZ would be completed by November.
The Sholinganallur IT/ITES SEZ would be inaugurated on May 13. The 6-lakh sq.ft. Biotechnology Park 2, costing Rs.120 crore, was scheduled for completion in December 2011.
Mr. Stalin said Tamil Nadu was ranked third among the States in terms of number of SEZs approved by the Centre, which had accorded formal approvals for 69 SEZ and in-principle approvals for 20. Another 57 SEZs had been notified.
