Will city's Fab dreams come true?

HYDERABAD: First the good news: about 50 per cent of the land in the much hyped Fab City - that is to establish a chip manufacturing base in Hyderabad has already been taken by various companies. And now for the bad news: there are - save one - no chip making ventures who have been allocated the land.
Most of these companies have taken up land are solar photo voltaic (PV) companies that manufacture solar cell modules that convert sunlight into electricity.The exception is SemIndia, which was brought in as an anchor client into the 1,050-acre Fab City.
Though the original plan was to develop the Fab City in about 1,200 acres to accommodate semiconductor companies, the extent of the Fab City has now shrunk to 1,050 acres with 150 acres being released for Outer Ring Road project.
Of this, SemIndia has already been allotted 100 acres. Solar Semiconductor is the other company that has been allotted 50 acres.
Moserbaer India, Titan Energy Systems, Nano-Tech Silicon India and Signet Solar are the other solar PV companies that have sought land at the Fab City for setting up their own units. Air Liquide, a company specialising in gas and chemicals, too has asked for about seven acres in the complex.
SemIndia had originally promised an investment of about $3 billion for setting up a chip unit in the Fab city in three phases.
The first phase was planned for setting up an assembly, test, marking and packaging (ATMP) unit with an investment of $75 million. Except this, all the other companies focus on solar PV and Air Liquide that supplies gases and chemicals to the companies in the complex.
“There is no doubt in saying that solar PV is the emerging technology and Hyderabad will have an important position on the global solar PV map. But to have fully developed Fab City is far superior technology wise,” an industry source pointed out.
Hopes were raised about the electronic hardware manufacturing activity picking up on city outskirts once the Fab city took shape.
“The government has already exhausted 50 per cent of the land available for solar PV firms. Now, if a real chip company wants to come to the city, there may not be enough land for them,” the source pointed out.
In fact, it was the Korean entrepreneur June Min-led Nano-Tech Silicon India (NTSI) that came to Hyderabad first to set up a chip unit. However, according to government sources, NTSI too is now planning to focus on solar PV instead of pure-play semiconductor.
“Normally, semiconductor companies take about four years to finalise a location after it is marked to them. The Fab City project was formally launched in 2006. One has to wait till 2010 to rope in a real semicon project. However, much before we get to hear from a serious chip player, the government is already giving away the land. This is not likely to give the state the desired results and this would be another opportunity going misused,” an official source said.