Adityapur Auto Cluster in Jharkhand to come up soon

Jharkhand's first auto-cluster, the Adityapur Auto Cluster (AAC), is all set to start functioning in the next couple of months, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) was engaged in giving the finishing touches to the project aimed at developing industrial infrastructure facilities in the Adityapur Industrial area in the Saraikela-Kharswan district. ASIA had formed a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), the Adityapur Auto Infrastructure Company Limited in 2008, which was later rechristened as AAC, with a purpose to implement the project under the Centre's Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS), said Managing Director of AAC, RK Sinha.

The project was being developed over 42 acres in the industrial estate of Adityapur with an estimated investment of over Rs 100 crore, he said. While 75 per cent of the cost would be borne by the Centre, Jharkhand government would have 10 per cent contribution and the remaining 15 per cent would be contributed by the entrepreneurs, Sinha said expressing satisfaction over the progress of construction work.

Ninety per cent construction work of one of the three components of the project was ready and would be completed in a month's time, he said. In the first phase of the project, he said a hi-tech laboratory with research and development facility and a business development centre would start functioning partially in the next two months while the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) would be ready in the next three months.

Sinha rued that the project was sanctioned in 2009 but was delayed due to mandatory clearances from the departments concerned, including forest and pollution control. "In fact, we are still waiting for certificates from the forest and pollution departments for setting up a Solid Hazardous Waste Recycling Unit," Sinha claimed.

The AAC would not only help around 1,000 auto-ancillary units to enter international markets with quality products, but also make the industrial estate pollution-free, he said.