Aurangabad: The city will soon be home to a Common Facility Centre (CFC) which will be set up in brownfield Electronics Manufacturing Cluster at Shendra MIDC. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has given its final approval to set it up at plot number 30 at five-start industrial area with an approved project cost of Rs 28.58 crore.Around 20 small-scale and other industries from Aurangabad have come together to from the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for implementation of the Electronics Manufacturing Cluster, which is expected to help industry captains in producing world-class products by aiding in design and production processes."While 10 locations in the country have been identified for developing an electronics manufacturing cluster, the one coming up at Aurangabad is first to get an approval from the Centre for CFC, Suresh Todkar, director of SPV — Deogiri Electronics Cluster Private Limited — told TOI on Sunday.The CFC is expected to act like a business incubator for electronic design and manufacturing, on the lines of the already existing Marathwada Auto Cluster that caters to the need of automotive and related industries.The CFC would act like a centralised facility that would offer technical expertise required to develop world-class products. It is expected to house the desired state-of-the-art machinery and automation techniques that can be used as a common pool of resources. Several small-scale industries cannot afford to purchase such machineries and equipment and therefore lag behind in competition, Todkar said.As per SPV authorities, a minimum of 50 industries engaged in electronics manufacturing and design would benefit from the CFC."It could take at least one and half year to have the complete set-up ready. While it will be too early to quantify the benefits to be reaped in terms of cumulative turn-over of money, we are confident that the CFC would give boost to the local electronics sector in both designing and manufacturing stage," authorities said.As per the laid down terms and conditions, the Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA) has to produce an undertaking stating that in the event of any shortfall in project funds, or non-collection of the contributions from the constituent units, the same will have to be mobilized and brought in by it. The CMIA has to further ensure that the SPV members do not withdraw from the project till it becomes operational.CMIA president Gurpreet Singh Bagga said that the chamber would stand behind the proposed cluster. "We have already extended the desired support and are ready to provide whatever is needed to ensure that the CFC and the Electronics Manufacturing Cluster become a reality soon. The cluster at Aurangabad will be unique because of the institutional pattern involved and we will live upto the expectations of the Centre," he said.The Centre has also stated that any escalation in the cost of the individual project components shall be solely borne by the SPV and that they shall arrange additional funds, if required, to meet time and cost overruns.Considering the set of conditions involved, we have to expedite the things to meet the stipulated deadlines. "We are in the process of generating our share of the money to be raised by the constituent units," Todkar said.

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