Hosur, known for producing TVS motorcycles, Ashok Leyland trucks and Titan watches, is also a major auto component exporter.
HOSUR: It’s a cliché, but nevertheless fits Hosur perfectly. Bangalore’s loss is Hosur’s gain. As Bangalore’s image got sullied due to bad roads and bumper-to-bumper traffic, the Tamil Nadu government pitched Hosur, 40 kms east of Bangalore, to be the new software and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) hotspot.
The industrial hub, known for producing TVS motorcycles, Ashok Leyland trucks and Titan watches, is also a major auto component exporter. Nearly one-fourth of the 500,000 population is employed in the 750 large and small units in this assembly constituency.
The software industry presence is still zero and Hosur, for all its positioning, is itself plagued with bad roads and traffic jams. But it has a very good power supply network. Yet, the real estate costs have gone skywards on speculation of tech firms investing in the town and the Centre’s plan to set up a 3,000 acres Special Economic Zone. Union Information Technology and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said the DMK, if voted to power, would promote Hosur as a competitor to Bangalore.
A Congress bastion with the party winning six of the last seven polls, Hosur this time will see a tough contest with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam fielding a Bangalore-based granite exporter V Sampangi Ramaiah, who in the early 1990s paid ransom to forest brigand Veerappan to get his son released. Ramaiah who stood third as an independent in the previous two elections, has an edge over the sitting Congress MLA Gopinath, say observers.
The town contributes nearly Rs1,000 crores in excise duties and Rs300 crores in commercial taxes and firms are finding no land to expand their operations in the industrial estates.
“If they want software firms, there should be good hotels, entertainment places and educational institutions. All these are lacking here,” Murugesan, a retired government official said.
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