The city is poised for small-scale industrial boom with five industrial clusters on the anvil to propel growth and create new jobs.
With large and medium-scale industries envisaging massive investment slow to emerge in Mysore, the focus has shifted to industrial clusters with thrust on small-scale units to drive industrialisation.
The five industrial clusters identified for Mysore include the printing cluster with technological intervention from TIFAC (Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council), general engineering cluster, packaging cluster, textile cluster and Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) cluster.
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Of these, the printing cluster is in an advanced stage of conceptualisation while Mysore is already recognised as a hub for electronic manufacturing and hardware and the cluster will evolve around it.
Study report
With regard to general engineering cluster with focus on automobiles, a diagnostic study report has been prepared by a Bangalore-based private agency and submitted to the Director of Industries and Commerce for recommendations.
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Cost
The cost of establishing the automobile and engineering cluster is expected to be nearly Rs. 30 crore, of which the Centre will release 80 per cent of the funds and the State government will chip in 10 per cent. The balance 10 per cent will be borne by stakeholders.
Suresh Kumar Jain, General Secretary of Mysore Industries Association, told The Hindu that each domain-specific cluster can result in focused development of small-scale industries that are hamstrung for lack of funds and technical know-how.
But through cluster development approach common facilities with state-of-the-art infrastructure like workshop, testing facilities and so on can be created with 80 per cent of the funding from the government.
The cost of establishing common facilities under the printing cluster will be around Rs. 14.8 crore of which the stakeholders have already chipped in Rs. 15 lakh as their initial contribution towards meeting 30 per cent of the land cost to be paid to Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB).
Land allotment
The KIADB is in the process of allotting five acres of land to the printing cluster, said Mr. Jain. The scope for cluster industries to span ancillary units was immense especially in the automobile sector.
The Automotive Axles alone has spanned nearly 250 ancillary units in Hebbal Industrial Area and the small-scale industries in Mysore and surrounding regions have generated about 2.5 lakh jobs, according to Mr. Jain.
Sixth cluster
The city is now pitching for a sixth cluster — Food Industries Cluster — for which an awareness programme will be held on August 31, said Mr. Jain.
In view of the fact that Mysore is home to Central Food Technological Research Institute and Defence Food Research Laboratory with a vast hinterland of agricultural tract in the taluks, the existing food processing units could expand and get a fillip through cluster-based approach.