Kerala's first multi-storey industrial complex is nearing completion at the Edayar Industrial Estate near here. It is scheduled for inauguration in March.
Industry sources said that this was the first of a series of such facilities, which would be plug-and-play complexes, catering to the needs of non-polluting industries.
The three-storey complex, being built at a cost of Rs. 5.5 crore, will house light engineering units, electronics and electrical units and garment makers. This is the first time that the Department of Industries is going in for this model of industrial space development.
The new initiative for multi-storey industrial complexes is in resonance with the draft Industrial Policy 2011, which promises quality infrastructure, both through State agencies and on public-private partnership model.
The policy also promises to upgrade the present industrial infrastructure in industrial development areas and industrial estates to global standards. The Industrial Policy promise is that multi-storey industrial complexes will be set up in all districts and that micro and small enterprise will get priority in allotment in such facilities. Space in most of the traditional industrial estates, including at the oldest one in the State at Edayar, has been exhausted. Multi-storey industrial complexes are common in North India, including in places like Noida, which have seen rapid industrialisation and exhaustion of space for horizontal development.
Entrepreneurs coming to the new industrial complex will be able choose from units ranging in size from 500 sq.ft. to 1,500 sq.ft. The entire complex will have a total built up area of 40,000 sq.ft. Each of the units comes with three-phase electricity connection, generation set backup and water supply.
The Industries Department has utilised an acre from the 450 acres available to it at the Edayar Industrial Estate, where there are over 300 industrial units in operation now. The Kerala Police Housing Construction Corporation is building the new complex.
It is learnt that multi-storey industrial complexes will soon be built in Palakkad and Thrissur. Provisions for these projects are likely to be made in the next Budget.
