Final instalment of the Rs.40-cr released to COINDIA
The Central Government released Rs. 12.4 crore to the Coimbatore Industrial Infrastructure Association (COINDIA) recently.This is the final instalment of the Rs. 40-crore grant that the Centre has released to the association for a Rs. 60-crore project to provide common training and manufacturing facilities to the small and tiny foundries and pumpset manufacturing units here.The president of the association, G. Rajendran, told presspersons here on Tuesday that about 60 per cent of the works, which were undertaken in three phases since 2005, had been completed. The final phase would also be over in another four months. Different segments of the project were likely to be commissioned by the beginning of the next fiscal.A modern tool room with assistance from the State Government also, a sewage treatment plant (in association with the Coimbatore Corporation and Siruthuli) and installing a rapid prototyping machine were the tasks proposed in the final phase.Mr. Rajendran said that the small and tiny foundries got facilities worth more than Rs. 20 crore through this project. This included three parks.The aim was to double casting exports from Coimbatore to Rs. 500 crore by 2009.The pumpset units, another major beneficiary under the scheme, targeted exports to the tune of Rs. 400 crore every year and last year it was about Rs. 75 crore.Conference halls, multimedia facilities and software packages were some of the other benefits from the scheme for the Coimbatore units.
Mr. Rajendran said that the Coimbatore cluster was one of the five clusters under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme that was reviewed directly by the Prime Minister's office.It was also the first among the 26 clusters under the scheme to get the entire grant so far, he claimed.Though the original estimate of the project was Rs. 67 crore, it was revised to Rs. 60 crore since a couple of proposals had not got the Centre's approval for grant under the scheme, he added.
