Stalin opens industrial housing facility for Foxconn workers in Chennai

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Saturday inaugurated an industrial housing facility for women employees of Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn at SIPCOT Industrial Park in Vallam Vadagal near Sriperumbudur.

Built at a cost of Rs 706 crore, the facility is spread over 20 acres and can accommodate 18,720 workers in 13 blocks, each with 10 floors.

Each dormitory style room houses six beds with a total of 240 rooms per block.

The newly opened industrial housing facility for women employees.

It has indoor and outdoor games area, playing court, 1MW rooftop solar power plant, dining facility, CCTV and other amenities.

Speaking at the event, Stalin said out of 41,000 workers of Foxconn, 35,000 are women.

Noting that the state has the highest number of women factory workers in the country at 42%, he said the state is implementing various schemes for their development.

Stalin announced that SIPCOT would open its own creches at the industrial parks to enable working women. As many as 63 creches are already operational at SIPCOT.

Foxconn chairman Dr Young Liu said the company's largest footprint in the country is in Tamil Nadu. He added that state’s economic blueprint is attractive for technology investment.

Dr Young Liu said, “Foxconn hires regardless of gender, and women make up a big part of our workforce here. I would emphasise that married women greatly contribute to the efforts of what we are doing here.”

Speaking at the event, state industries minister T R B Raaja said gender equality is a very important goal of this government and called the facility first-of-its-kind in the country.

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