Kolkata — India is planning several new industrial parks for plastics companies, with governments and local trade associations saying they're needed to boost development.
Parks are planned for Madhya Pradesh in the central part of the country, in the western state of Rajasthan and in southern India, around Kerala and near Hyderabad, according to plastics officials.
The Mumbai-based All India Plastics Manufacturers Association, for example, said it has started talks with the government of Kerala about a 40-acre industrial park in the Kannur district, with AIPMA acting as the facilitator to bring in companies and local governments providing the infrastructure.
AIPMA also is involved in a 120-acre industrial cluster in Rajasthan, in the city of Udwariya, about 160 miles from Ahmedabad, and estimates about 70 companies will occupy the site.
“The state government has given approval to the plastic park in principle,” said AIPMA Vice President Lalit Kumar Singh, at the Indplas 2015 show, held Nov. 27-30 in Kolkata.
Another park for more than 100 small plastics firm is planned in Tamot, near Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
The government-sponsored economic development agency, MP Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam in Bhopal, has acquired about 140 acres of land, and estimates that the park will attract investment of about $130 million and employ about 20,000.
The agency's website says allotment for land at the park will start in late 2016.
India's central government, as well, is planning a plastic park in the newly created state of Telangana, although the exact location has not been determined.
The capital of Telangana, Hyderabad, is emerging as a hub of plastics processing in India, and the country's Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology plans to open a $9 million campus for training industry workers by the end of 2016.
Plans call for the new facility to train 5,000 workers yearly in plastics, double the current figures at CIPET's current Hyderabad campus. Telangana was carved out of the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.