Industrialisation of southern districts of Tamil Nadu was picking up with several new proposals lined up, Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M. K. Alagiri said on Saturday.
An Indonesian company had come forward to set up its alloy steel industry near Melur, 30 km from here. There was also a plan to start a subsidiary unit of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) in this district, he said at a function.
Referring to the long pending demand for a branch of Anna University here, Mr. Alagiri, elected to the Lok Sabha from the city, said the University would come up from the next academic year.
The premier engineering university of Tamil Nadu was trifurcated into Anna University, Chennai, Anna University, Tiruchirappalli and Anna University Coimbatore, in 2007.
Mr. Alagiri said with a view to promote women self-help groups in the granite industry, the state government had issued an order that would help them in exchanging waste granite chips and slabs with various products and selling them in the Madurai and Sivaganga belt, famous for granite.
Around 1,000 women self-help groups would be involved in converting the waste granite into gravels, jally and other products used in road laying and concrete mixing, he said.
