The Centre has approved in principle 91 SEZs for Andhra Pradesh, the highest in the country, Andhra Pradesh Major Industres Minister Dr Geetha Reddy said today.
She told reporters here that of the 91, work for 64 SEZs were already progressing.
The state had taken care to ensure that only government land or one-crop land were acquired for SEZs, to avoid repetition of Nandigram there, the minister said.
The farmers, whose land had been acquired, were being provided alternative housing sites. They would be provided training for employment in the SEZs for which their land had been taken, she said, claiming that no other state in the country had taken such precautions.
Stating that the Andhra Pradesh government headed by Y S Rajasekekar Reddy was "industry friendly" one, she said during the past four years, the state had attracted an investment to tune of Rs 17,000 crore and another Rs 38,000 crore was in the pipeline.
Alleging that the previous Telugu Desam party government had given prominence only to IT industry, she said Dr Reddy's government gave importance to manufacturing sector as well.
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She said the ground breaking ceremony for Rs 1,000 crore 5000-acre-spread private sector SEZ would be performed on August eight, near Tada,on Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border.
The promoter of the project, Ravindra Sannareddy, an NRI said the SEZ would have auto components, light engineering, electronics hardware, apparel and fashion outlets and also IT and BPO units.MNCs like Venture of USA, Bura of Spain and International Apparels of Holland had already signed MoUs to set up units in the SEZ, he said.