US chipmaker Micron Technology on Saturday organised a groundbreaking ceremony at the Sanand industrial area of Gujarat to flag off the construction of the new semiconductor testing and packaging plant in Sanand, Gujarat. The US chipmaker has tied with Tata Projects for the facility, which is slated to be built with a $2.75-billion investment in the first phase. The company also said it has started the recruitment process for the new plant.
PM Narendra Modi signed the agreement with Micron during his US visit on June 22. The semiconductor firm will be investing $825 million in Gujarat over a period of seven years to construct the facility which will come up in two phases. The combined investment of $2.75 billion is projected to create around 5,000 direct jobs and offer 15,000 community job opportunities over the next five years.
“This new manufacturing site will be an invaluable addition to Micron’s existing global assembly and test footprint. Micron selected Tata Projects to construct our new facility,” said Gursharan Singh, senior vice-president, Micron Technology while speaking at the event at Sanand.
A formal agreement was signed between Micron and Tata Projects during the ceremony.
“Our new site of 1.4 million square feet facility including 500,000 square feet of clean room is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. We expect to operationalise the facility by then,” he added.
About 50 per cent of the total cost of setting up this facility will be borne by the central government, while 20 per cent of the cost will be given in the form of various reliefs by the state government.
The Assembly, Test, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) of the company is being set up on a 93 acre land in Sanand GIDC-II industrial estate.
“Micron expects Phase-2 of the project which will include construction of a facility similar to that of Phase-1. Micron’s investment will be USD 825 million over the two phases of the project and we will create 5,000 new direct jobs here in Sanand and 15,000 community jobs over the next several jobs,” Singh told the audience where Union minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw and his colleague Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel were present.
The company said the project encompasses the design and construction of a first-of-its-kind DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and NAND (non-volatile flash memory) assembly and test facility in India.
Tata Projects aims to use modern construction methods and techniques involving integrated EPC delivery through 4D BIM and hybrid modular accelerated construction, it added.
According to a statement issued by the company, the Sanand factory will be designed in accordance with LEED Gold Standards of the Green Building Council and will also integrate advanced water-saving technologies.
"Today we are doing bhoomi pujan within 90 days. This is the speed of a double-engine sarkaar," Vaishnaw added, referring to the BJP governments at the Centre and state working together.
MoS for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said after the announcement of the semiconductor vision by the PM and the planned investment of Rs 76,000 crore to catalyse and build India's semicon ecosystem, much progress had been made in the past 18 months. "This is a big milestone in India's roadmap and growth as a Semiconductor Nation," Chandrasekhar said.
It is a “decadal opportunity” that will also see growth and investment in the complex supply chain needed to support a semiconductor ecosystem, he added, and India is globally becoming a trusted partner.
“For the digital economy's target of being 20 per cent of GDP in the coming years, tomorrow’s ground-breaking represents a big milestone,” he said.
“We will achieve in the next ten years what countries to our north have taken 20-25 years and spent $200 billion and not succeeded.”
Meanwhile, Union Minister of Railways Vaishnaw announced a "world-class" train between the industrial hub of Sanand and Ahmedabad.
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