Minister M B Patil.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government is looking to raise a Rs 5,000 crore loan, out of which Rs 3,000 crore will be used to acquire or further develop almost 75,000 acres of land and the remaining Rs 2,000 crore will be to provide dedicated water from the Cauvery river to industrial parks, Industries and Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil said on Thursday, at an event organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Part of the Rs 3,000 crore will be used to develop infrastructure facilities in existing industrial parks and the rest for buying land for new industrial areas, Patil later explained to DH.
Of the 75,000 acres, around 15,000 acres will be around Bengaluru, including near the airport, Chikballapur, Bengaluru Rural and Tumakuru, Patil told DH. The rest will be in districts like Belagavi and Hubballi. Patil said that a part of the Rs 3,000 crore loan for the land will also be used to compensate farmers.
While the plan to supply Cauvery water is still being finalised, 50 per cent fresh water and 50 per cent recycled water is what has roughly been decided, Patil said, and is meant for industrial parks around Bengaluru.
As to who the loan will be availed from, Patil told DH that the Industries Department is in talks with the Finance Department and awaiting a bank guarantee from the government.
At the event, Patil announced two upcoming startup parks in the state. One will be in Bengaluru, the land for which has been identified and which will support the pharma, biotech and information technology sectors. The other will be established in Belagavi, to focus on the med-tech sector.
He mentioned having received recommendations for a deep-tech park that may be considered after the completion of ongoing projects.
The state is also set to unveil its KHIR (Knowledge, Health, Innovation and Research) city within the next seven to ten days. The 2,000-acre hub designed to foster research and industry growth will be unveiled by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. This will be across two phases of 1,000 acres each.
At the same event, IT/BT Secretary Ekroop Caur said that four plug-and-play facilities beyond Bengaluru have been decided over the past year. Two are brownfield projects, such as the existing IT park in Dharwad which will be revamped into a global technology centre, and in Mysuru where a planned global tech centre will open. That apart, two greenfield projects have also been decided for Belagavi and Mangaluru.