Japanese and Taiwanese chip firms plan exclusive housing corridors for expats in Dholera’s Tata fab city: Report

TEL and PSMC eye private townships to retain global talent at India’s first semiconductor fab

Dholera, Gujarat, already in the spotlight as the site of India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant, is now seeing fresh activity around housing, not just chips. According to a report by The Economic Times, Japanese and Taiwanese electronics firms are considering building country-specific housing corridors to provide their expat employees with a familiar and comfortable living environment.

Among them: Japan’s Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC), both partners in the Tata Group’s upcoming fab. The idea, officials told ET, is to establish dedicated residential enclaves complete with modern amenities, recreation, and cultural familiarity for the hundreds of engineers and specialists expected to relocate.

Gujarat sets the stage

A senior Gujarat government official told The Economic Times that land has already been earmarked under the Dholera master plan for housing and recreation.

“This will be mainly for Taiwanese employees from PSMC and their suppliers as well as the large consortium of Japanese companies that are going to be working in the region for the Tata fab,” the official said.

These would be in addition to housing being developed by the Tata Group and a Global Tent City initiative by the state government. The model isn’t entirely new: Gujarat already hosts Japanese townships in other manufacturing hubs.

TEL at the forefront

Semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron appears to be driving the initiative. TEL had signed a partnership with Tata Electronics in September last year to strengthen semiconductor equipment infrastructure for the Dholera fab and Tata’s upcoming assembly and test facility in Jagiroad, Assam.

Takeshi Okubo, executive vice president and general manager at TEL, told The Economic Times the company is actively exploring the housing project.

“We are looking into how we can make this happen for the benefit of our employees,” he said. “This is something that we have not done in other countries but feel it is important in Dholera’s context because locations like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore already have many established fabs. Dholera is completely different.”

Making expats feel at home

The challenge is clear: Dholera is in a dry state, with a largely vegetarian diet and relatively remote, 100 km from Ahmedabad and 600 km from Mumbai. Exclusive housing corridors are being seen as a way to make expats feel at home and ensure talent retention.

Japanese and Taiwanese executives are also eyeing connectivity improvements, particularly the under-construction Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. “Once that’s operational, that would be good. It will be an opportunity for employees to enjoy Mumbai. But all this will take time,” Okubo noted.

More firms weigh in

It’s not just Asian partners. American engineering services firm Jacobs Solutions, which is working on the Tata fab, is also evaluating housing options.

“With semiconductors in India, maybe it is an early story, but there’s possibly an avenue to build out some infrastructure for the workforce there,” Jacobs executive vice president Koti Vadlamudi told The Economic Times.

Sinead Giblin, senior vice president at Jacobs, added: “We would sort of piggyback off a partner who is doing it. We’re looking at options but it is a bit challenging because of the remoteness.”