Andhra plans to leverage competitors' infrastructure

Andhra Pradesh has not one but three international airports to facilitate the flow of investments into the state, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy recently said while speaking on the natural advantages the state enjoys in terms of attracting new investments.

Apart from the upcoming greenfield international airport near Hyderabad, the chief minister was also referring to the other two international airports at Chennai and Bangalore in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states as they are within two-hour journey from border areas of Andhra Pradesh.

The state administration was quick to take the hint from the CM. It has drawn up massive plans to develop thousands of acres of land in the border areas so that investors get readily available infrastructure to set up their units in the state.

As part of the execution of the chief minister's strategy to utilise the competitor states' infrastructure to its own advantage, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) issued notification for acquisition of over 12,000 acres of land at Satyaveedu in Chittoor district a couple of days back. APIIC vice-chairman and managing director B P Acharya confirmed that a notification was issued for land acquisition at Satyaveedu.

While some of the remote parts of Nellore and Chittor districts are in close proximity to Chennai, bordering areas in Anatapur district adjoining Hindupur town are much closer to the new Bangalore International Airport. These places are already attracting the attention of investors, including realtors like Raheja's.

Land acquisition in Satyaveedu is considered as a minor effort when compared to the similar plans contemplated for other areas. As per the information, the government is planning to acquire about 50,000 acres of land in Hindupur, which according to some, will take less time to reach from the Bangalore International Airport than from the Bangalore city owing to traffic snarls. Similarly, the industries department officials have identified over 25,000 acres of land at Tada in Nellore district which is very near to Chennai. It may be recalled that APIIC has chalked out plans to invest up to Rs 2,000 crore to acquire lands having potential for industrial development all across the state.

The state government has already tasted its first success by convincing the Apache group to set up its manufacturing unit near Tada as the place enjoys close proximity to Chennai and the Chennai international airport.

It is the first company in recent times to prefer Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu. The Andhra government offered a good bargain in terms of land and other incentives for the proposed shoe manufacturing unit near Tada, which is as good as Sriperambudur in terms of its distance to Chennai.

The government now wants to develop social infrastructure like hospitals with modern facilities and schools with international standards at Tada to attract more investors to this area where vast extent of land is available.

But, like any other programme this too has its share of problems. For instance, even though Hindupur is very near to Bangalore, the connectivity between the two points is still considered a problem. A state government official has gone to the extent of alleging that the Karnataka government has intentionally kept the Bangalore-Hindupur road in a bad shape.

According to him, previous efforts by the Transport, Roads and Buildings department of the Andhra Pradesh government to develop this road stretch in Karnataka limits at its own cost had not yielded results due to indifference shown by Karnataka officials.