The State government will earmark 165 acres of land for the formation of new industrial estates in Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Tiruvarur and Pudukottai districts.
Announcing this during the demands for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department in the Assembly on Wednesday, Minister for Rural Industries P. Mohan said that the industrial estates will be set up at a cost of Rs. 30 crore each. If private industries are willing to set up estates elsewhere, SIDCO would be willing to join hands with them, he said.
According to the policy statement, 25 new industrial estates were announced. Of them, 12 have been established in various districts on about 442 acres. For the remaining 13, SIDCO has identified the land and they were in various stages of implementation.
The Minister said an industries centre would come up at Guindy in Chennai to provide assistance to MSME industries.
It would liaison between the industries and bodies including SIDCO and TANSI.
Under the New Entrepreneur-cum-Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS), about 1,700 have been trained in entrepreneurship.
Of them 846 were provided a subsidy of Rs. 77 crore and they had started ventures valued at Rs. 410 crore. Of the beneficiaries, 297 were first-generation women entrepreneurs, Mr. Mohan said. In the past four years, the department had disbursed subsidies, including capital and power subsidy amounting to Rs. 623 crore benefitting 42,318 individuals and companies.
On the labour front, the Minister said strikes and lockouts had come down during the past four years compared to the previous DMK regime. However, he did not inform how much it has come down during the AIADMK regime.
