Gandhinagar: CEOs of global firms present at the Gujarat SemiConnect 2026’s inauguration emphasized the need for a better ecosystem encouraging ancillary investment, the right talent and social infrastructure in Sanand and Dholera to further boost the semiconductor manufacturing sector. “Timely development of social infrastructure is essential to support the workforce at Dholera. We currently have at least 7,000 people working on site and at peak, will have 20,000 jobs,” said Randhir Thakur, CEO and MD, Tata Electronics.Tata Electronics, along with Taiwan’s PSMC, is building a Rs 91,000-crore AI-enabled semiconductor fabrication facility at Dholera. Thakur also added that the project is backed by strong physical infrastructure. “A new four-lane highway reduced travel time to 60 minutes. Redundant, clean and uninterrupted power supply was secured, along with more than 100 million litres per day of water capacity. An international air cargo terminal and high-speed rail connectivity are also in the pipeline, significantly enhancing accessibility for global partners. We already onboarded expats from 16 countries; 300 of our employees are trained in Taiwan, bringing skills from process engineering tools to lithography to Gujarat.” Micron, which on Saturday inaugurated Phase 1 of its ATMP plant at Sanand, highlighted the importance of speed and local presence in the semiconductor supply chain. Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman, president and CEO of Micron Technology, said, “In semiconductors, the supply chain must move at the speed of light. Proximity matters. Local presence and local end-support and services matter. When the equipment is down, we need spare parts immediately, as speed is the competitive advantage in this era. We encourage our partners to think about how you deepen and expand your footprint here in India, closer to where the action is.” Industry experts also sought support for accommodation. “At present, a majority of personnel working at Sanand stay in Ahmedabad, which adds about 2 hours of daily commute time. To reduce this, it is important that housing and accommodation facilities and, subsequently, social infrastructure like schools, hospitals and recreational facilities are also set up there. A number of expats come in for these projects, as a result of which food and other supplies also need to be ensured,” an industry leader told TOI, requesting anonymity.
