Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway could become Karnataka's first high-tech industry corridor, experts say

According to A Murali, general secretary of the Bidadi Industry Association, the town already has an automotive component manufacturing industry with about 60,000 workers and 250-plus industries.

“After the launch of the expressway, we can say that the number of employees will cross 1 lakh with the addition of about 200 industries within the next five years,” he said.

Amit Goenka of Nisus Finance said the stretch of land holds an opportunity for $1 billion of investment.

“When the Hebbal corridor was being built, the investment was limited to $1 billion. But after the first investment, today we find several IT parks, industrial areas, and residential settlements have sprouted,” Goenka said.

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High-tech corridor

The expressway will allow faster cargo movement between Bengaluru and Mysuru and eventually will become part of the Bengaluru-Malappuram (Kerala) economic corridor, said Chandranath Dey, India head – operations & business development, logistics & industrial at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Dey said the country’s first semiconductor plant by ISMC will be established in Mysuru with an investment of  Rs 22,900 crore ($3 billion), creating a value chain in the Mysuru-Bengaluru industrial region with marquee electronics manufacturers including Foxconn and Winstron in Bengaluru. ISMC is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor and plans set up the chip-making plant on 150 acres of land in Mysuru’s Kochanahalli industrial area.

The Karnataka state government is also promoting defence aerospace clusters in places such as Mysuru, Tumakuru, and Chamarajanagar. Global companies Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, Airbus, Collins Aerospace, Safran, and Raytheon Technologies have a presence in Bengaluru, as well as public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics, and Indian Space Research Organisation.

Additionally, about 230 acres of electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) and skill development clusters will be developed at the Kochanahalli industrial area, about 15 km from Mysuru, focused on eco-friendly manufacturing, Dey added.

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“Mysuru cluster has garnered investor interest of Rs 1,400 crore to develop electronics manufacturing clusters, CN Ashwath Narayan, minister for IT & BT, entrepreneurship and livelihood, said earlier. “This is also expected to generate more than 12,000 jobs.”

Mysuru will be declared the Semicon Valley of India while ensuring a conducive environment for semiconductor manufacturing along with its own international airport.

Experts said these developments can be a catalyst for a massive high-tech industrial belt development along the expressway, with a major shift towards the semiconductor industry.

EV manufacturing, warehousing

Industry leaders said Ramanagara has the potential to become an auto manufacturing hub and an electric vehicle cluster and in Channapatna, the toy industry has the potential to grow further.

“Ramanagara district has all the infrastructure and resources for the development of an auto cluster and auto components cluster,” said L Ravindran, president of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce. “The Karnataka government is working towards developing an EV cluster in the region. The district currently houses manufacturing units of auto major Toyota.”

The corridor will considerably boost development in terms of multi-modal logistics parks, industrial townships, and residential blocks and this can be seen happening and being scaled up in Ramanagara, Channapatna, Mandya and Srirangapatna, he added.

The expressway will see pockets of development in the auto and manufacturing sector, followed by food processing units, said Umakant Y, director, advisory services at Colliers India.

“Most towns around the expressway are agriculture-oriented and thus there are possibilities to see food processing units booming,” he said.

Additionally, he said areas across the new corridor such as Kengeri and Kumbalgodu hold the potential for significant warehousing development.

“We will see warehousing developments only up until Bidadi. There is about a 40 million square foot market for warehousing in Bengaluru, in pockets around Mysore Road. The expressway will act as a catalyst,” Dey said.

Girish C Hosur, metropolitan commissioner of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority,  said the drafting of masterplans for towns along the expressway is already in process.

“We can expect the drafting of the masterplan for the Kanakapura region to commence in six months. Rest of the places will follow,” he said.

Realtors pointed out that until the infrastructural push reaches areas surrounding the expressway, most of the land will be held as assets or to set up farmhouses, mostly as second homes.