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On the highway to progress

On Friday, we reported how Tamil Nadu has become a favourite destination for foreign investors. In this segment of the feature, Shobha Warrier surveys the facilities that have helped the state rise to the number 3 spot in the national investment rankings.

Tamil Nadu's road network ranks second in the Indian states. Out of the road length of 204,475 kms, 148,472 kms are surfaced roads. For every 1,000 sq kms in Tamil Nadu there are 1,572 kms of roads as against the all-India average of 663 km

Traffic has grown at around 10 per cent and with the entry of the automobile giants, further growth is expected.

The government is trying to develop many roads to industrial parks and ports as highways and expressways on a toll basis, with help from the private sector. Already, there's a plan to develop an elevated expressway at Ennore to connect the petrochemical park to the city. The only question if road-users will like to pay toll.

According to R Gopalan, chairman and managing director, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, "When you have good roads, industries won't mind paying toll."

Automobiles

One reason automobile giant Mahindra Ford put up a factory in Madras was because Tamil Nadu has a strong base in automobile components.

Coimbatore, Erode, Madras and Salem have already made their name, and the presence of the TVS group, the Murugappa group, among others have given the state an edge over other states. Now many companies with foreign collaboration are set to raise the standards of Indian exports too.

Tamil Nadu provides 50 per cent of India's automobile component exports. Also, of the few automobile components the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce exports to Germany, 60 per cent comes from the state. The TVS group, the Amalgamations group and the Rane group together contribute 27 per cent of India's automobile component requirement.

Leather

India has 4.5 per cent of the global leather market. Seventy per cent of India's leather tanning capacity is in Tamil Nadu, amounting to an annual turnover of Rs 45 billion. According to T R Gopalan of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, leather makes up 27 to 28 per cent of their exports to Germany.

Ports

There are 11 ports along India's 7,000 km coastline of which two -- Madras and Tuticorin -- are in Tamil Nadu. The state itself has a 1,000-km coastline, with the capacity of developing two intermediate ports, at Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, and seven minor ports -- Colachel, Ennore, Kanyakumari, Pamban, Poonakayal, Rameswaram and Valinokkam. The government is planning to develop all these ports.

Though the total cargo handling capacity of India's ports is 11.88 billion MT, in 1996-97, only 227.2 million MTs were handled. Of this, the Madras Port Trust handled a record 35.53 million tonnes.

Tamil Nadu's national standing:

                         Tamil Nadu      India    %age    Rank
Land area (sq km)        130,000     3,287,000     3.9     9
Population                   63m          960m     6.3     7
GDP (US$)                    23b          351b     6.3     3
Literacy (%)                62.7          52.2
Per capita income ($)        381           366
Per capita (as per PPP) 	   1,802         1,731
Org. sector employment       36%          8.5%
SDP ($)                      23b                           3
Factories in operation	  18,552                           2
Workers employment                                         2
Gross Industrial Output-factory sector                     3
Value addition in industry                                 2
State export intensity      1/3rd of industrial output
Currency exports ($)	   5.3 b
Yearly export growth rate 12-15%

Traditional strengths of the state:

Traditional strength        State's share
Heavy commercial vehicles       27%
Auto components                 35%
Railway coaches                 49%
Cotton yarn                     32%
Leather tanning                 70%
Mopeds                          46%
Motor cycles                    13%
Newsprint                       17%
Power driven pumps              50%
Software                        32%