With the state riding high on renewable energy wave, its prestigious solar energy project, Chennai solar economic zone, has grabbed global attention.
The 312-acre project, located along the Chennai-Bengaluru corridor, has bagged the privilege of being one of the 100 most innovative global infrastructure projects that makes cities liveable and sustainable.
GMR Krishnagiri SEZ Ltd (GKSL) is a 2,800-acres of multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) being developed by GMR Group. Of this, about 312-acres are being exclusively developed as world’s first SEZ dedicated to solar industry.
GMR Solar Tropic would be a fully integrated ecosystem for solar goods, providing infrastructure and utilities to house all activities of solar goods industry – across R&D, manufacture, services and trading.
And it is this project along with five others in the country has been identified among the 100 innovative sustainable global infrastructure projects by global audit firm KPMG.
These projects have been featured in the second edition of the Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition, which was recently released at the World Cities Summit in Singapore.
India is expected to witness large-scale migration with almost 400 million people expected to move to urban centers in the next few decades. With existing cities and towns already densely populated, the creation of new cities and neighbourhoods will be critical.
“India’s need to boost economic growth combined with a growing population requires a globally competitive business environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure to facilitate both local commerce and foreign investment,” said Mr Arvind Mahajan, head-infrastructure advisory group, KPMG India.
Plan outlays show that India will spend more than $1 trillion in infrastructure over the next five years, representing approximately 10 per cent of GDP annually, to balance the needs of the population, the economy and the environment.