Sterlite to invest Rs. 16,000 crore in Maharashtra

Sterlite Technologies has said that the group plans to invest Rs 16,000 crore in Maharashtra in the manufacturing of LCD panel fabrication (fab).

The interest was expressed by the promoter of the group Chairman Anil Agrawal during his meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, officials from the Chief Minister’s Office have said.

“Sterlite plans to invest Rs 16,000 crore over the next five years in LCD panel fab project in the state,” the CMO official said. “The Sterlite group has a production unit at Walunj MIDC in Aurangabad and they are looking forward to expand the facility. If they start the LCD panel fab project, it would be the first of its kind project in the country.”

Sterlite currently makes optical fibres for telecom and internet services. The LCD unit will see it foray into supplying components for consumer electronics companies, the market for which is expected to grow with the government’s Make in India and Digital India programmes.

The Central government too has decided to extend its special package for such investment.

Fadnavis also had a dialogue with Vedanta CEO Tom Albanese. Earlier in the day, the CM also addressed the ‘Prabodhan Leaders’ Conclave 2015’ where CEOs of several Indian and British companies participated.

While addressing the conclave, Fadnavis discussed the various facets of Smart Cities. “Smart City is not merely about technology, but about involving people and understanding their needs,” he said, adding that Maharashtra is moving in that direction. To make Smart City model a success empowering Mayors to enable better performance is needed, he said.

Fadnavis also laid stress on the importance of quality of life. “We’ve to create jobs, provide newer services and give better quality of life. We are building a new city, ‘NAINA’, which will be bigger than Mumbai,” the Chief Minister said.

While interacting with CEOs, Fadnavis assured that while creating infrastructure, there won’t be problems in land acquisition, and cited the example of Navi Mumbai model of development.

Optimum use of services will bring down the cost which is the main objective and his government will achieve this by creating Smart Cities, he said.

“We have to put water and power supply into smart grid to keep a count of every drop of water and every unit of power,” he noted.

Fadnavis also interacted with the gathering on Urban Infrastructure,

Public-Private Partnership, powers of Mayor, and new technologies at the conclave. He said people should get efficient services without escalating cost.

www.freepressjournal.in