Reliance zeroes in on Gujarat for Fab City project

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance has zeroed in on Gujarat for its mega Fab City project.

While the exact investment for the project, which is likely to come up in Jamnagar is not known, senior government officials say the company is looking to ink an agreement during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, to be held in January next year.

The company is in talks with the state industries department for the project, which will require an investment in the region of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).

While company officials could not be reached, officials in the state government said the company is likely to submit a detailed proposal to the state industries department, it is learnt.

Already, Hindustan Semiconductor & Manufacturing Company, a consortium of US-based NRIs is in advance stages of talks with the state government for setting up Fab City project at Prantij, near Ahmedabad.

Company sources say work on phase I, which will require an investment of over Rs 8,000-crore (Rs 80-billion) is likely to start soon.

As per the semiconductor policy announced last year, the government would give incentive package of about 20 per cent of capital expenditure for a period of the first 10 years for units in SEZs and 25 per cent for non-SEZ units.

In the first phase Reliance has also chalked out plans to set up an assembly, test, mark and packaging facility at Jamnagar over a period of three years.

The company will manufacture polysilicon, single crystal/multi-crystalline ingots and solar-grade wafers, government sources said.

The plant is expected to create over 10,000 job opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers. The investment in fabrication unit could mainly be for solar panels, sources said.

The company is setting up a sand-to-silicon complex in Jamnagar wherein the product range could be from photovoltaic modules to high-end chipsets for the electronics industry. Reliance has envinced interest setting up a greenfield PV cells unit in Jamnagar.

The state government has already been given letter of intent of 5 MW from 10 MW quota allotted by the Centre to each state.

Besides Gujarat, Reliance is also exploring other options like planning to set up another Fab City unit in either Mahrasthra or Andhra Pradesh.