Motorola team comes scouting for location

Meets YSR; visits hardware park for handset assembly plant

A high-level team from the Motorola company, which is on the lookout for a suitable place to locate the company's proposed handset assembly plant in India, met chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today.

The team came here from Chennai, where it is said to have done various assessments apart from visiting the possible locations for the plant on Thursday.

According to official sources, Reddy offered the Motorola team all possible support for the establishment of their proposed handset plant in Hyderabad along with various incentives available for such industrial investments in the state.

The team included Stuart C Reed, senior vice-president and chief supply chain officer, and Carl Thielk corporate vice-president of Motorola.

As part of the evaluation of the facilities in the city, the team visited the proposed hardware park near the new international airport at Shamshabad. It is learnt that the company is keen to locate their facility near the international airport.

According to sources, the company may require at least 50 acres of land for the plant, which is expected to bring in more than Rs 1,000 crore investments over a period of time.

It may be recalled that apart from offering various incentives and infrastructural facilities, the state government has also decided to set up product-specific special economic zones in the hardware park for both hardware and software development operations.

The government has already entered into an informal understanding with the software giant Infosys for the development of a proposed software SEZ near the hardware park.

Officials are also said to have briefed the delegation about the advantages of locating their manufacturing base in Hyderabad as compared to other places like Chennai. The delegation wanted to know the availability of quality workforce in Hyderabad, sources said.

"The state government is keen to see that the Motorola unit comes to Hyderabad as it offers employment to people with less educational qualifications. The government is looking for creation of employment opportunities at lower levels as well," a senior government official told Business Standard.

The team remained non-committal on locating the plant during their interaction with the state officials and is expected to come out with concrete proposals in two-three months after making a comparative evaluation of all the places they visited.