Mandya industrial projects, including proposed automotive and electric vehicle testing facilities, have faced a 10-month delay in land allocation, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy has alleged in a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
Kumaraswamy said the state government had not yet finalised suitable land for the Construction and Infrastructure Equipment Testing Centre, known as the CIE Test Centre, and an electric vehicle testing centre proposed by the Automotive Research Association of India. He handed over the letter to the Chief Minister’s Additional Chief Secretary, Tushar Girinath, and later discussed the issue with him, according to a report by Prajavani.
The minister also released minutes of meetings, correspondence between the Centre and Karnataka, and other documents connected with the proposal. In his letter, he said that despite repeated efforts, land allocation had not been settled by the Mandya district administration and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, or KIADB.
An ARAI team inspected Basaralu, the MySugar factory in Mandya and areas in K.R. Pet in March as part of the site-selection process. Basaralu and Elechakanahalli were subsequently assessed. At a meeting held on September 16, about 100 acres at Basaralu was discussed as potentially suitable for the CIE centre.
The proposed electric vehicle testing centre would require an additional 60 acres, Kumaraswamy said in the letter. ARAI submitted a revised proposal on September 28, but the land has not yet been allocated, according to the minister’s account.
The two facilities are intended to support vehicle research, testing and technology development. They are also expected to contribute to employment generation, although the report does not provide projected investment, job numbers, construction timelines or operating budgets.
The issue places responsibility for the next stage of the project with the state’s land-allocation machinery, particularly the district administration and KIADB. While the 2026–27 Karnataka budget reportedly included an announcement on providing land for the CIE centre, the minister said the administrative decision remained pending.
Kumaraswamy has urged the Chief Minister to immediately allocate land for the proposed facilities. The next formal step is the state government’s decision on the sites and land requirements identified through the ARAI assessment process.
