HYDERABAD: Stung by criticism over the slow progress in the implementation of the prestigious semi-conductor complex near the city, the State Government has initiated a series of measures to give impetus to the project.

Chief Secretary J. Harinarayan held a meeting with senior officials of the Industries and Information Technology departments to identify and remove the bottlenecks in implementing the Fab City. The Industries Department began working out details of incentives like supply of power and water at concessional rates to be offered to the project.

Sources said the Government would issue an order very soon clearing the land allotment and specifying the incentives as well as the guidelines to be followed by the promoter, SemIndia.

The Government is understood to have tentatively finalised a price of Rs. 20 lakhs an acre for alienation of 1,200 acres of Government land to the Fab City, the sources added.

However, only 300 acres would be handed over to SemIndia first for this price .

The rest of the land would be allotted, depending on the response by others to establish units in the Fab City.

Senior officials, contacted by The Hindu, insisted that Fab City was going to be reality and dismissed the criticism by political parties as baseless.

The Government signed an agreement with SemIndia on February 16 last and the company immediately registered its local arm on February 21. They attributed the delay in issuing the relevant orders to the Centre not announcing its semi-conductor policy until February 22, 2007.

They said SemIndia would invest Rs 15,000 crore for the Rs 40,000-crore mega project.

Following a message from the Government, SemIndia Chairman Vinod Agarwal is rushing here from the United States on Tuesday to respond to apprehensions being raised whether the project would come up at all and whether the company was competent enough to execute it.