 "N Chandrababu Naidu")
Taking land acquisition to a new level, Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, on Friday, decided to procure 100,000 acres of land through the land pooling system at Machilipatnam in Krishna district, for the development of a deepwater port along with an industrial corridor.
Last year, the state government had procured over 34,000 acres of land in Krishna and Guntur districts for the construction of the new capital Amaravati, by implementing a voluntary land pooling system. Friday's decision comes much bigger than the capital city plan.
The state Cabinet approved the decision to procure 100,000 acres of land for the port and industrial corridor covering 420 sq km across 29 villages around the port town of Machilipatnam. The government plans to complete the entire land pooling process with in one year.
Under the land pooling system, the AP Capital Region Development Authority had offered developed plots, both residential and commercial, in exchange for land to farmers in the capital region.
In the earlier government, it was decided to acquire about 6,000 acres for the development of Machilipatnam port-cum-industrial park project. With the new decision, Machilipatnam will emerge as the biggest industrial corridor project in the entire state.
Currently, there are four large multi-product special economic zone-cum-industrial parks at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Sri City, with their size each in an extent ranging from 5,000 acres to 10,000 acres. Even if the the government sets aside half the land for common infrastructure and for the farmers' share, the proposed industrial corridor will at least have 50,000 acres.
In addition to the existing industrial parks the government already got in-principle approvals to set up two large National Investment and Manufacturing Zones in Prakasam and Chittoor districts.
