Japanese firms Hitachi, Takasago and Ajinomoto are gearing up to establish manufacturing facilities near Chennai. The firms are the early stake owners into the pact with Ascenda, a Japanese for setting up a 1,550 acre integrated industrial township located 50 km south of Chennai.

Ascendas has entered into a pact with three other firms to take up the space to develop township in the southern city.

The industrial township, OneHub Chennai, previously named Omega Industrial Township to draw investments from the Japanese and international businesses. The project also got the green signal from the Tamil Nadu Government.

Ajinomoto will set up a new packaging firm and office in OneHub and has plans for product development; Hitachi manufacture automotive components; and Takasago will set up a manufacturing and R&D office space which will be its headquarters for India and South Asia as planned earlier.

The new township will be completed in several stages in eight years. The Mega Township will woo investments from auto, electronics, food, beverage, and consumer goods sector and will support more than 150,000 people when fully developed. The first phase is will be completed by 2014.

The $750-million project is a JV between Ascendas, a business space developer in Asia, Ireo, a renowned developer covering huge residential and commercial space in India and JGC Corporation a management contractor and Mizuho Bank a arm of $2 trillion Japan-based Mizuho Financial Group.