Gwalior telecom zone draws Rs 5,500 crore proposals from 24 companies

NEW DELHI: Gwalior is getting ready to put manufacturing on the telecom map. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said 24 companies have proposed investments of Rs 5,500 crore in the planned Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ), while a fresh Bengaluru investor roundtable generated proposed investments of around Rs 700 crore.

The third investors’ roundtable, held in Bengaluru on 22 September, brought together companies from the technology, telecom, semiconductor and electronics sectors to discuss investment opportunities in the Gwalior-based zone. The meeting was chaired by Jyotiraditya Scindia and Mohan Yadav.

The government is positioning the TMZ as an integrated industrial cluster covering telecom and electronics manufacturing, research and development, innovation and related activities. The proposed zone is expected to cover areas ranging from mobile devices and optical fibre to telecom equipment and next-generation 5G and 6G technologies.

Scindia said the Bengaluru roadshow marked the completion of the first phase of the government’s investor outreach, with nearly 24 companies already on board. He added that the Madhya Pradesh government has put in place incentives and subsidies of around Rs 8,000 crore.

The minister also said the government wants to move the telecom sector towards greater domestic value addition, indigenous intellectual property and globally competitive products. He said investors facing queries or issues related to the TMZ would receive a government response within 48 hours, according to the Press Information Bureau release.

The latest roundtable follows investor meetings in Delhi and Mumbai. According to DoT, those meetings resulted in investment commitments of Rs 5,500 crore and the potential for around 18,000 employment opportunities. The department said companies have since moved into the application process rather than relying only on verbal commitments.

The Bengaluru meeting added another Rs 700 crore to Rs 800 crore in proposed investments, with several companies also indicating that they would conduct site visits before taking their proposals forward. The investments remain subject to management approval and evaluation.

The TMZ is being developed jointly by the Centre and the Government of Madhya Pradesh. A memorandum of understanding signed in July provides for a Special Purpose Vehicle with 51 per cent equity held by Madhya Pradesh and 49 per cent by DoT. For Phase I, the Centre is providing Rs 493 crore in funding, while the state has made around 170 acres of land available and offered investor incentives.

The government has described the project as an effort to strengthen domestic telecom supply chains, reduce import dependence, support indigenous product development and create an ecosystem for exports. The proposed cluster is also expected to include common testing and certification infrastructure to support product development.

Before the Bengaluru roundtable, Scindia visited Qualcomm in the city, where he met company leadership and senior representatives. Discussions covered telecom technologies, semiconductor capabilities, indigenous product development, research and innovation, and the participation of technology companies in the country’s telecom manufacturing ecosystem.

For Gwalior, the proposed zone represents a push to build a broader industrial base around telecom rather than a standalone manufacturing facility. DoT has said the first phase has attracted interest from 24 companies, with applications exceeding the initially identified land in earlier updates.

With the Bengaluru roundtable closing the first phase of investor outreach, the next step for the TMZ will be turning proposals and applications into actual manufacturing, R&D and technology projects on the ground.