The Andhra Pradesh government is in talks with three hitech companies, engaged in the manufacture of photovoltaic solar cells, liquid crystal display (LCD) and light-emitting diodes (LED), for setting their facilities in the state. The facilities together are expected to bring in an investment of $6 billion (around 25,200 crore).
"We are concentrating on hitech manufacturing now, as the sector is booming. Discussions are on with three companies and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with them will be signed shortly," said CS Rao, IT adviser to the Andhra Pradesh government and chief executive officer of APInvest. He did not share the names of the companies and also whether they are domestic or foreign players.
The facilities will come up at the Fab City in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Nellore, each attracting a minimum investment of $2 billion (approximately Rs 8,400 crore), he said.
The new entrants would join the growing list of semiconductor and hitech manufacturing companies that have proposed projects in the state. In all, 16-odd companies have signed agreements with the government.
These include Hyderabad-based XL Telecom and Energy, which is planning to set up a solar cells and modules unit at an outlay of $76.25 million (Rs 320.25 crore), composite insulators manufacturer Goldstone Infratech that is setting up a Rs 2,800-crore thin-film photovoltaic panels unit in a joint venture with Korea-based TF SolarPower and Jusung Engineering, and Titan Energy Systems, which announced a Rs 900-crore project with complete value chain from wafer, modules to system integration in the Fab City.
Moser Baer Photovoltaic, the solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing arm of optical storage disk maker Moser Baer, has been sanctioned 100 acres for setting up a solar cell facility and an R&D lab in the Fab City. "Initially, 25 acres would be allotted to Moser Baer while the rest would be kept as reserve.
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The company is simultaneously expanding to Chennai as well and is expected to start operations, with a 300Mw capacity, at the Fab City in the next one year. Each Mw could entail an investment of between $1 million and $1.5 million," he added.