Monday, September 15, 2014: A ground is getting set for Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) anchor project in India and land-allotment has not yet received any approval, as per the sanctioned in-principle, from the UPA-II government. Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, has however, given a clearance to the EMC project.
But the project cannot initiate for over a year now as local authorities are not taking sufficient initiatives. 13 acres of land has been allotted by Andhra Pradesh government at Gambheeram, where India’s first Centre for Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) would be established. The centre, which will have an investment of Rs 800 million, will be run by Society for Applied Microwave Electronic Engineering & Research (SAMEER), an autonomous R&D lab under DeitY.
The Hindu has learnt from some sources that SAMEER campus would be a pilot project for the EMC. But, as a delay is occurring, E3 will be set up at the same place now, and this project will be launched after the allotted land is finally handed over. In August 2013, a newsletter from DeitY, mentioned that EMC was at the beginning phase of appraisal and the site has been identified as Jagannadhapuram village near Parawada, by APIIC in Survey No. 26. No follow-up has been done thereafter. Plans are there to convert Visakhapatnam into an electronics hub through this project.
As mentioned in The Hindu, a senior official of the Ministry of Communications and IT, stated on condition of anonymity, “We are flush with funds. Once we get suitable land for the project, we will immediately release funds for the project.”
