Nanguneri Multi-Product SEZ has only 13 small manufacturing units providing employment to a few hundred skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
The southern districts’ dream of Nanguneri Multi-product Special Economic Zone getting revived after 25 years has been once again shattered as the Tamil Nadu Interim Budget 2026 presented in the Assembly on Tuesday did not spell out its revival plan.
Nanguneri Multi-Product SEZ has only 13 small manufacturing units providing employment to a few hundred skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers even though it was aimed at producing a lakh jobs and thereby mitigate the caste-clashes in southern districts.
The project promoter has mortgaged a major portion of the 2,600 acres of land acquired for the SEZ to raise bulky loans for other purposes while the SEZ complex still has no investor-friendly infrastructure.
The DMK has failed to retrieve the land. “This silence by Tamil Nadu Government is just frustrating. We’ve given up all our hopes on this government,” said a veteran industrialist, who has planned to invest in this SEZ.
Even as the information technology Special Economic Zone established at Gangaikondan 20 years ago by then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is waiting for the companies to open their offices here, this Budget claims to open mini IT park in Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari in southern Tamil Nadu.
However, the announcement pertaining to the opening of Centre of Excellence in Government Engineering College, Palayamkottai, to equip students with employable skills has been encouraging.
Similarly, the government has proposed to establish sewage treatment plant to prevent direct discharge of wastewater into the Tamirabharani from the areas under Tirunelveli Corporation.
The Budget has revealed the State Government’s intention to build pumped storage hydroelectric project in the Vellimalai area in the Western Ghats in neighbouring Kanniyakumari district for generating 1,000 MW of power.
Published – February 17, 2026 06:52 pm IST
