Reliance to invest Rs 30K cr in fab plants

A host of Indian companies, including Reliance Industries (RIL), Videocon, Moser Baer, Titan Energy, KSK Energy Ventures and Signet Solar, have submitted proposals worth over Rs 60,000 crore to the government for manufacturing wafers, polysilicon, solar cells, solar photovoltaic modules (SPV) and liquid crystal display (LCD) for semiconductor devices.

The proposals also cover setting up of assembly, test, mark and packaging (ATMP) facilities. Reliance alone has submitted a proposal (total investment around Rs 30,000 crore) for a semiconductor wafer fab unit with ATMP facility at an outlay of Rs 18,521 crore ($4.635 billion) to be invested over 10 years.

The company is scouting for a location in Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Mysore and Haryana. The company will decide the final location after negotiations with respective state governments.

Around 4,000 people will be employed at the fabrication and ATMP units. The company plans to set up a second fab facility at Jamnagar with an investment of Rs 11,631 crore ($2.91 billion).

It will manufacture polysilicon, single crystal/multi-crystalline ingots, solar-grade wafers, SPV modules. The plant is expected to create over 11,000 direct skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled job opportunities.

Policy push

The government has received seven proposals envisaging an investment of around Rs 65,000 crore ($16.25 billion) till date in response to the special incentive package for semiconductor fabrication and other micro- and nano-technology manufacturing industries it announced last year. The investment will be made over a period of 10 years.

"Initially, the companies were doubtful about this scheme. But now, we are receiving good response not only from Indian firms, but also from international players," he added. "Next year, we are expecting about 7-10 additional proposals," said A Raja, Union minister for  communication and information technology.

Under the incentives package, the central government will provide an incentive of 20 per cent of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years for units in SEZs and 25 per cent for non-SEZ units.

While Reliance has asked for a Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) subsidy, Videocon has made claims for Rs 2,000 crore (Rs , Moser Baer PV Technologies India for Rs 2,393 crore, Titan Energy System for Rs 200 crore in the fourth year and Rs 296 crore in the seventh year.