The Karnataka government on Saturday cleared 72 industrial proposals including a tourism city project near Bangalore. These proposals will bring in investments of Rs 89,974 crore over a period of time besides creating over 1.5 lakh jobs, said Murugesh Nirani, Karnataka industries minister.
During its Global Investors Meet in June, the state government had signed over 400 MoUs for investments into sectors like steel, cement, infrastructure and aerospace among others.
A tourism-city project, billed as `Space City? which would entail an investment of Rs18,400 crore, is among the largest projects cleared on Saturday. According to Sanjai Chhaunkar, managing director of Marib Infrastructure India Private Ltd, the company executing the project, its promoters include members of the royal families of Abu Dhabi and Malaysia.
The ?Space City?, proposed to be set up on 1,600 acre of land at Bagepalli, an hour drive from the Bangalore International Airport on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, would include theme parks, hotels, commercial space and a monorail system, said Chhaunkar. ?In its entirety, it would be a new city,? he added. The other prominent investments include power plants to be set up by the Lanco Infratech Ltd, Bhoruka Power and the Kamineni Group, a gems and jewellery park proposed by Rajesh Exports at a cost of Rs 460 crore at Devanahalli on Bangalore?s outskirts and a Rs 650 crore multi-disciplinary education campus of the Manipal Group near Bangalore.
Besides, infrastructure company Marg Ltd would invest Rs 980 crore in building a knowledge hub at Dharwad district while Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt is planning a Rs 250 crore plant in Yadgir district.
Meanwhile, Nirani said the state would only approve investments in steel projects from companies that already held a mining lease. Over the past few months, the state has cleared at least 40 steel projects entailing an investment of over Rs1 lakh crore.