Chip makers to get free power, land

The government is in the process of drafting a national semi-conductor policy as more and more proposals are pouring in for setting up semi-conductor facilities across India. The policy would be modelled on the framework in Taiwan and China, said an official.

Adapting a policy akin to that of China and Taiwan means that infrastructure facilities, like power, water and land, required for setting up a project will be provided to the promoters free of cost.

Taiwan has about 40 chip plants and China has 39 fabrication facilities.

A "fab city" requires about 60 mw power and about 50 million gallons of water per day once it is fully operational. A few companies including SemIndia are asking for such concessions.

At present, there was hardly any policy guidelines to support projects like the fab city and with non-resident Indians like the consortiums promoting SemIndia and Indian Equipment Manufacturing Company wanting to set up fabrication projects, a policy framework was required, officials said.

Recently, the SemIndia-led consortium, which includes AMD as its technology partner, had announced the setting up of a fabrication facility with a total cost outlay of $3 billion. The IEMC had also announced that it had intentions of setting up a fabrication facility with an investment of $3-4 billion.