Telangana attracted Rs 2.2 lakh crore investments in last seven years: KTR
Speaking at the launch of Hyderabad-headquartered Premier Energies’ solar module and cell manufacturing greenfield unit at Electronic City in Maheshwaram.
Hyderabad: In the last seven years, Telangana has attracted 15,000 industrial units with a cumulative investment of over Rs 2.2 lakh crore. About 80 percent of these units are already operational or will be operational soon. They have been playing a key role in generating employment for the local youth, said Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao.
Speaking at the launch of Hyderabad-headquartered Premier Energies’ solar module and cell manufacturing greenfield unit at Electronic City in Maheshwaram, the Minister said Telangana has been offering special incentives for the industries offering employment to the local youth. Premier, which has a capacity of 750 MW each of solar cell and module manufacturing, has created about 700 jobs locally, he said. It has built the new unit at a cost of Rs 483 crore in a record 18 months.
“There is intense competition between the States as well as between the nations to attract private investments. Employment generation is a key challenge for all governments. Private investments are playing a big role in providing jobs locally,” he said, adding that the State Government has focused on single window clearance of applications and ease of doing business. It is offering resources like the land, water, power and subsidies along with trained manpower to attract the industries to Telangana.
Stating that renewable energy is the focus for Telangana, Rama Rao said Telangana worked hard to overcome the power crisis within six months after the State formation. In terms of solar energy production, the State has the second largest production capacity after Karnataka, which is geographically bigger than Telangana.
Lauding the efforts of Premier Energies in setting up the world class facility here in Hyderabad, the Minister said the company had overcome challenges including those induced by Covid to stick to project deadlines. The stand-off between India and China in recent times too posed a challenge for the company as the engineers from China who were supposed to assemble machinery could not travel immediately. In such a scenario, the in-house technicians had risen to the occasion and assembled the machinery, he said.
The company has committed to invest another Rs 1,200 crore for expansion in two years and this will create an additional employment for 2,000 people and its capacity will cross 3 GW. The company is already the largest in terms of capacity in South India, the Minister said.
Skill Centre
Earlier, Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy requested KT Rama Rao for setting up a skill development centre to train the local youth. Responding to this, the Industries Minister said that a skill training institute will be launched in Rangareddy on August 5. This will train the ITI students, engineers, diploma and degree holders and others in varied skills and also assist them find a placement in the local companies.
Surender Pal Singh, founder and chairman of Premier Energies said, “We have realised over the last two decades that solar power is not only a cleaner alternative to traditional energy that is highly dependent on fossil fuel, but can also address the power crisis that India, especially our villages, are grappling with. In an agricultural economy like India, solar energy can play a big role in irrigation and harvesting.”
Chiranjeev Saluja, founder and managing director of the company said, “The future of the power industry in India is going to be driven by renewable energy, primarily dominated by solar energy. With the expanded capacity, we aim to work towards India’s commitment to addressing climate change.”
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