When the news broke out that Tesla has registered its R&D office in Bengaluru, India and was looking forward to start manufacturing its automobiles in India, several state governments tried to negotiate and offered land to Tesla to set-up its mega-factory.
Given that India has extremely huge potential for automobile industry and the present central government encourages electric vehicles’ manufacturing, in the last 4-5 years several start-ups are manufacturing electric vehicles and few brands like Tata, MG, Hyundai have already have few electric cars in the market. Bengaluru has been headquarters for few electric vehicle start-ups such as Reva, Ather and now Ola.
Two young creative entrepreneurs from Tumakuru, Karnataka have initiated a campaign #TeslaForTumakuru urging the state government to consider Tumakuru to set-up Tesla’s Mega-factory. And their reasoning is quite convincing as well.
When asked as to why he wants Tesla’s Mega-Factory in Tumakuru, Dr Prathik Jain, founder of ManuealIndian, a men’s grooming company responded “Approximately around 30000-50000 residents from Tumakuru commute to Bengaluru almost every day for their work. If Tesla starts manufacturing in Tumakuru, it would give job opportunities to thousands of people and definitely encourage people to settle down in Tumakuru.”
Adding on to Dr.Prathik’s statement, his friend Ravi Sagar says ”Tumakuru has been educational hub over a decade. People across the country come to Tumakuru to pursue Engineering and other technical courses.And they have had a good career growth being placed in several top MNCs. Tumakuru has around 7 top Engineering colleges in the state and there are highly talented graduates and post-graduates to offer from the city.”
Ravi Sagar himself studied at an engineering college in Tumakuru. He has opted a creative career and owns Aequitas Studios which addresses creative requirements in Tumakuru and Bengaluru as well.
They both suggested that Karnataka government can offer Vasantha Narasapura Industrial estate to Tesla. Vasantha Narasapura Industrial estate is one of India’s largest industrial estates which is ideally located on Bengaluru-Pune highway. It is situated just 15 km from Tumakuru. There are several developmental projects been proposed and are under pipeline.
It’s being said that there is a proposal for mini airport near the industrial estate as well. Close to Vasantha Narasapura Industrial estate, work is underway to set up the Rayadurga railway junction which is likely to be completed very soon.
It is reported that Karnataka Govt is on the look out for options to extend Metro-Rail connectivity from Nelamangala to Vasantha Narasapura Industrial estate which can be a huge boost to the companies situated at the location with respect to commuting and transportation.
Tumakuru has several industrial estates around it. The central government’s HAL and ISRO are been set-up in Tumakuru. Definitely, it would be a huge advantage for Tesla to have its manufacturing set-up in Tumakuru which is an hour drive from Bengaluru and has got good connectivity through road, railways and airways.
Despite Ather and Ola being Bengaluru based start-ups, their factories have been set-up at Hosur, Tamil Nadu, an embarrassment for Karnataka which has failed to support its native start-up companies. Hence we would like to urge Karnataka Govt and Tesla on behalf of Dr Prathik & Ravi Sagar to consider Tumakuru as primary option for establishing Tesla’s mega-factory.
Dr Prathik Jain says, “Businesses in Tumakuru will increase more as Telsa would offer jobs to over 5000-10000 people directly or indirectly. It would increase the standard of living in and around the city. Dependency on Bengaluru for jobs reduces.”
“Having such futuristic company like Tesla in the neighbourhood would put Tumakuru on International industrial map.” sums up Ravi Sagar. We would request follow residents and entrepreneurs of Tumakuru to support these two young entrepreneurs through #TeslaForTumakuru campaign for the good of its own people.
This article was first published here.