The State Industrial Promotion Corporation (SIPCOT) has reserved 100 acres of land at its industrial park near Manapparai on the Tiruchi-Dindigul Highway for the Jabil Inc, a multinational corporation based in the U.S. that supplies electronic components to Apple, Cisco, HP, Dell, and so on.

The park has 1,0976.96 acres of land at Kannudaiyanpatti, K. Periyapatti, and Chatrapatti near Manapparai. It has developed basic infrastructure and various amenities such as road, electricity lines, and drinking water pipelines. It began receiving applications for the allotment of sites in 2019.

Of the 1,097 acres, the State government earmarked 131.92 acres to Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO), a small portion to Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation. The SIPCOT is now allotting sites to the industries on a long term lease.

According to sources, 30 companies have been allotted sites at SIPCOT Industrial Park. A few more companies have evinced interest to set up their plants at the park. Jabil Inc. is among the companies and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the officials of the State government and representatives of the company was signed during the visit of then Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to the U.S. in September 2024.

A high-level team from Jabil Inc. visited the SIPCOT park to analyse the location of the land, road, air and railway connectivity and various aspects of establishment of industry. The team also studied access to ports in Thoothukudi, Kochi, and Karaikal, availability of five-star hotels in Tiruchi, recreation and sports facilities, including golf. The company was said to be looking at establsihing electronics manufacturing unit with an investment of ₹2,000 crore.

Sources added that the company officials held a few rounds of talks with senior officials before taking the proposal forward. It was expected that the company would sign an agreement for land allotment before the announcement of Assembly election.

A senior official of SIPCOT told The Hindu that communication with the U.S. company was on. One hundred acres of land had been reserved for the company. If this proposal went through, it would be the first big ticket investment by an MNC at the SIPCOT Industrial Park in Manapparai, providing employment to about 5,000 people. Signing of agreement was expected soon.