Sir M Visweswaraya’s dictum “Industrialise or perish” galvanised India towards massive industrialisation. Major cities in India, including Bengaluru, required dedicated areas to establish the industries.
In the 1970s, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) identified a vast area of land in Peenya, in north-west Bengaluru, called as the Peenya Industrial Area. Another board, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Development Board (KSSIDC) set up the Peenya Industrial Estate to set up micro, small and medium enterprises. The entire area came to be known as Peenya Industrial Complex, popularly known as Peenya Industries.
Now, Peenya is one of the biggest industrial areas in South East Asia and has nearly 20,000 industries spread over a 40 square-kilometre area, with over 10,00,000 employees working in them. Most of the industries are micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), mainly in the mechanical, electrical, electronic, automobile, civil engineering, packaging, garments, lubricants, consumer items, pharmaceutical and machine tools sectors. Some of the industries export their products to the international market. All these industries in Peenya contribute about INR 2,600 crores in revenue to the Government of Karnataka and the Government of India through taxes and duties.
Recently, environment-friendly industrial processes have been emphasised. Therefore, under the aegis of Peenya Industries Association (PIA), which safeguards and actively promotes the industries in and around Peenya, environment-friendly steps such as installation of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), solar energy systems and planting of saplings in the area have been initiated, for a clean and green Peenya.
