By IANS,
Bangalore : Karnataka has stepped up efforts to bag private investments in industrial projects ahead of the Global Investors Meet here in June by holding roadshows in several cities in the country.
The state is bidding for a Rs.2,000-crore ($40 mn) two-wheeler plant that auto major Hero Honda plans to set up in south India.
A Hero Honda technical team will visit Karnataka in Feb first week to search for a suitable site for the plant, according to state Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani.
Nirani met the Hero Honda officials in New Delhi late Friday as part of the roadshow in the national capital.
“Hero Honda has evinced interest to set up a plant for manufacturing two wheelers with an investment of Rs.2000 crores in south India. We have been proactively promoting Hubli/Dharawad (in north Karnataka, about 420 km from Bangalore) for their investments. The company is sending its technical team for evaluation in first week of February,” an official statement on the meeting said Saturday.
The statement said teams from Nectar Lifesciences, Mosarbaer, Kajaria Ceramics and an Egyptian firm, Kapci Coatings, also met Nirani and discussed their investment plants.
Nectar Lifesciences plans a plant for manufacture of life saving drugs with an investment of Rs.1,500 crores while Mosarbaer a 50 MW grid connected Solar Photo voltaic project with an investment of Rs.850 crores in Chickaballapur district adjoining Bangalore, the statement said.
Kajaria Ceramics is interested in setting up a vitrified/ceramic tiles unit with an investment of Rs.150 crores in Belgaum in north Karnataka, about 500 km from here, and the Egyptian company a Rs.145 crore plant for manufacturing of paints and decorative coatings, it said.
The Global Investors Meet is scheduled for June 3-4. It has been put off twice, once due to poor response in view of the global meltdown and for the second time following heavy floods in north Karnataka in late September last year.