The fate of the 27 new Industrial Parks (IP) to come up in Andhra Pradesh now hangs in balance, thanks to creation of Telangana State.
Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), which is developing the parks, made a presentation to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on the need to develop the new industrial parks about a week before the formation of Telangana State was announced.
Currently, Andhra Pradesh has 319 IPs and 76 Special Economic Zones.
“Many of the IPs are completely saturated and hence there has been a need for new industrial parks,’’ APIIC, a nodal agency for development of SEZs and IPs in the State, said in the presentation.
Out of 27 IPs, 15 are proposed to be set up in Andhra/Rayalaseema region while the remaining are in Telangana. This also includes industrial parks exclusively for women entrepreneurs.
LAND ACQUISITION
The projects are likely to run into rough weather as issues such as acquisition of land, revenue and investments would have to be dealt by the respective State Governments.
As of now, APIIC has got a land pool of over 1.24 lakh acres of which 74,422 acres have been allotted. The whole process is under “utter confusion’’ according to a senior functionary of APIIC.
The patta land which is the process of acquisition (44,156 acres) and acquired land yet to be alienated (48,275 acres) have been impacted by the decision to create Telangana and all works have been stalled by the corporation.
A central team is learnt to have been in touch with APIIC already to ascertain the state of projects/investments and issues to be considered for partition. The applicability of Government Order (No 571) on land allotment guidelines for various projects is doubtful for different regions in the present state of affairs.
Manufacturing zones
The bifurcation of the State is also expected to delay execution of National Investment Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs). Recently, the State Government has received in-principle approval for three (NIMZs) in Chittoor, Medak and Prakasam districts.
The land acquisition for Chittoor and Prakasam NIMZs is underway and it is completed in Medak. The State Government is now preparing to sanction special staff to APIIC to oversee NIMZ activities which might get delayed now.
naga.gunturi@thehindu.co.in