TN should ensure infrastructure in Sriperumbudur: Nokia

Chennai, Oct 25 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government should enhance the road and rail connectivity to the Sriperumbudur region, which is all set to emerge as an electronic manufacturing hub, creating 50,000 jobs in the next three years.

Nokia Director Indian Operations Jukka Lehtela said for the electronic manufacturing industry to create a supplier base in this region -- so as to cut lead and delivery time and inventory cost -- the region should have favourable manufacturing environment that met global standards.

Delivering the inaugural address at the Manufacturing Conclave 2006, a two-day conference on manufacturing excellence, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today, Mr Lehtela said following large scale investment of mobile and electronic manufacturing companies, there had been a need to focus on the issues with regard to power, water, housing, roads, environmental standards and compliance.

The global manufacturing companies that had chosen the Sriperumbudur region for their manufacturing base wanted to create scalable infrastructure that would ensure smooth material flow.

Citing the success of Nokia's industrial parks at Hungary and China, Mr Lehtela said the Nokia industrial park at Chennai, which housed the core manufacturing plant of the company and the manufacturing base of eight of its suppliers, itself had the potential to create 20,000 new jobs in the next three years.

He said the growth of the mobile phone industry in India had been phenomenal in the recent past with the industry adding a subscriber base of around 11 million in the fourth quarter of the financial year, 2006 alone.

Mr Lehtela said, enhancing the aviation infrastructure of Chennai was yet another important factor that would determine the quality and quantity of foreign investment in the electronic manufacturing sector in and around Chennai.

''Nokia was at present facing difficulties in meeting its manufacturing schedules, because of the delays in the aviation services that depend on inadequate infrastructure'', he added.

UNI GV PA KP1959