UAE firms to invest ₹3500 cr in Telangana

Hyderabad: It's raining investments for Telangana State from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Business conglomerates Lulu Group and BR Shetty Group signed separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Telangana State government on Sunday for a combined investment of Rs 3,500 crore in the State. While Lulu Group will invest Rs 2,500 crore, BR Shetty Group will invest Rs 1,000 crore.

The MoUs were signed, in the presence of IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, by Principal Secretary for IT and Industries Jayesh Ranjan and Lulu Group managing director Yusuff Ali MA and BRS Ventures (a company of BR Shetty Group) chairman BR Shetty in separate events in Abu Dhabi. The Minister who recently concluded his tour to South Korea and Japan followed by participation in the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, made a brief halt in UAE for business meetings and signing of MoUs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi before heading back to Hyderabad.

The LuLu Group signed an MoU for establishing a vegetable processing unit in Medak district, a food processing unit in Ranga Reddy district and a mega shopping mall of 1.8 million sft near Malaysian Township in Hyderabad.

These three projects would involved investment of over Rs 2,500 crore and are expected to generate direct employment to about 6,000 people in the State. "We are excited to sign these MoUs with Telangana State which being the newest State offers great potential for expansions. The support as well as cooperation from the State government has been very encouraging for us. We will begin work within three months as the TS government has already initiated the process to hand over the land to us," said Yusuff Ali MA, chairman of Lulu Group. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will lay the foundation stone for the projects.

Rama Rao said the State government always wanted world class facilities for the State, especially in the retail and food sector. "Being a leader in these sectors, Lulu Group is our natural choice. We have extended our fullest support and look forward to working with them in many more projects in the future," he added.

Similarly, another MoU was signed with BR Shetty group which will invest in three major projects with a cumulative investment of about Rs 1,000 crore over a period of three-five years. The Group would set up a pharma manufacturing and R&D (research and development) unit, a medical device manufacturing unit and also establish greenfield multi-specialty hospitals and higher education institutions. Both the pharmaceutical manufacturing and medical device manufacturing units will be established in 20 acres land each.

The medical device manufacturing unit will produce medical equipment including dialysis machines, medical aids, and hospital furniture among others at the Telangana Medical Devices Park coming up in Sultanpur on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The greenfield multi-specialty hospitals will be established with an aggregate capacity of 500 beds on aggregate land size of 20 acres, while higher education institutions will be established in the disciplines of medical, engineering and management on about 50 acres.