War-ravaged and abandoned Atchchuveli Industrial Zone reopens in Jaffna on Wednesday
View(s):The once-abandoned Atchchuveli Industrial Estate in Jaffna, the north’s biggest industrial zone at one time until the war ruined all hopes, reopens on Wednesday after a massive overhaul and infusion of capital that is set to finally stimulate small and medium scale businesses in the post-war era.
The rehabilitated and modernised Small and Medium Industrial Estate at Atchchuveli, Jaffna of the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development will be ceremonially opened in the presence of Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development; Y.K. Sinha, High Commissioner of India; Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development; Weerakumara Dissanayake, Deputy Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development; G.A. Chandrasiri, Governor of the Northern Province and V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary, Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, Devananda’s ministry said in an announcement.
It said the reactivation of industrial estate was supported under the generous small development grant assistance programme of the Indian Government to the value of Rs.225 million with the Sri Lankan Government providing counterpart funds of Rs. 50 milion.
The Atchchuveli estate was set up in the 1970s on 65 acres and was managed by the IDB. There were 36 industrial units in operation in the 25 acres covering lime based products, fruit pulp based products, aluminium based products, tyre retread, coconut oil extraction and ever-silver and plastic based products. This industrial estate was very popular and successful in its operation but ceased to function in 1991 due to the war situation. It was abandoned for over 25 years and virtually a jungle until revived by the ministry.
Under phase one, 22 land plots (40 perch – 4 plots; 80 perch – 14 plots and 160 perch – 4 plots) have been developed in 25 acres with common infrastructure facilities such as internal road (1.25 km), storm water drainage (1.4 km), water supply system, water tank (60 cubic metre), drinking water supply, three phase electricity, water treatment facility, service building, fire protection system, fire water sump and waste water disposal system, boundary wall, chain link fence, administrative complex and entrance buildings. Post office and canteen facilities are to be made available. Land plots will be provided along with the infrastructure facilities to small and medium industrialists on a 30 year lease basis.
The ministry said that the following criteria is currently being used in selecting industries under the industrial estate programme: high potential and viable sectors/clusters; value addition; use of local raw materials; export orientation/export connectedness; forward and backward linkages; flagship sector with very high potential spillover effects; and investment and employment generation
Of the 61 applications, seven SMEs have already been selected and mobilized. It includes Sara Industries (involved in manufacturing of light engineering products such as hinges, mamotties, knives, water pumps and agricultural equipment); Hema Industries (food based products such as jam, cordial, grape wine, nelli cordial, grape cordial using wood apple, mango, orange, grapes, pineapple, papaw, papadam, dehydrated fruits and dry foods and pickles); Nobel Printers (waste paper recycling and related products such as writing, printing and new printing papers, all kinds of exercise books, magazines, pamphlets , educational brochures, screen printing and digital cloth printing and installation of waste paper re-cycling processing plant); Yarl SST Fibre Ltd (fibre glass products covering door with glass, bath basin, flower vas, sculpture mould and fibre glass boat); Union Enterprise (PVC pipes and horse pipe related products); and Vesta (food and beverage based product such as nelli cordial, etc).
The ministry said the seven companies will initially invest Rs.547 million and provide direct employment to over 525 people. At full operational stage, it is expected to attract initially an investment of over Rs. 2 billion and generate employment to over 3,500 people.