Sri City gets Rs 6500 cr investment commitment

Cadbury India will invest Rs 1,000 cr in Phase I of its project and intends to double this to expand operations in later phases

Even though the general perception about Andhra Pradesh as an attractive investment destination has turned negative in the light of political uncertainty, Sri City, a private industrial park in the state, has, proved otherwise.

The 5,000-acre special economic zone, located at Tada on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border, near Chennai, could get a commitment of over $1 billion investment from three global companies in just three months.

"The investments committed to Sri City in the last three months have touched Rs 6,500 crore with the yesterday's announcement by Cadbury India. While Cadbury announced Rs 1,000 crore investment in Phase I of its project, it intends to double this to expand operations in later phases," Ravi Sannareddy, managing director of Sri City, told Business Standard.

The other two major companies that have announced plans to set up their plants here are Japanese truck-maker Isuzu and American food and beverages major PepsiCo with proposals to invest Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 2,000 crore respectively in phases, according to him.

Close proximity to Chennai has certainly worked in its favour. Its success also marks a shift in how the industrial promotion in a state is done. Earlier, the state government agencies used to be the only contact point for prospective investors. But, with the coming up of private industrial parks and SEZs, the developers of these parks have started marketing the state for investments apart from offering the initial hand holding required by the companies.

So far, about 90 companies had set up shop in this park in five years after the ground breaking was performed on August 8, 2008. A total of Rs 10,000 crore investments have now been committed within the park, mostly in the domestic tariff area, he said.