APIIC gets Rs 224.78cr from land sales

In a significant development on the industrial front, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has posted a 100 per cent growth in collections from land sales in the first seven months of the current financial year.

This huge jump in turnover signifies a steep escalation in land prices as well as a spurt in demand for land for the establishment of new industrial units in the state besides the efforts of APIIC in improving its collections.

The corporation has received Rs 224.78 crore in cash from the sale of over 2,151 acres of land to more than 115 private manufacturing and IT companies across the state by the end of October 2005.

The staggering revenue during the seven-month period is an outstanding achievement for APIIC which had collected just Rs 117 crore through the sale of around 3,000 acres during the entire 2004-05 fiscal.

In fact, APIIC's growing income from land sales is a recent phenomenon as the collection of Rs 117 crore last year was itself a record high in the history of the corporation which came into existence in 1974. The corporation's annual revenue from land sales in 2003-04 was only about Rs 60 crore.

The establishment of industrial estates and development of plots with basic infrastructure to facilitate setting up of new units is the raison d'etre of APIIC, which is responsible for the execution of the first successful PPP models in IT and others sectors in the state.

The Cyber Towers, Hyderabad's famous landmark, has been built by L&T with APIIC as the joint venture partner with over 12 per cent equity.

"What is more significant this time around is that the land sales are spread across all the 14 zones of the state and not merely limited to some cities," B P Acharya, vice-chairman and managing director of APIIC, told Business Standard.

After he took charge of the corporation in May 2005, Acharya fixed zonal-wise targets for sale of land in its possession for industrial purposes.

In the face of stiff competition from companies, the corporation even auctioned its lands in places like Vizag. Of the total collections for the seven-month period this year, the special zones of Vizag and Hyderabad have contributed Rs 84 crore and Rs 75 crore respectively.

Going by the present operations and projects in hand, the revenues of the corporation from land sales are expected to grow even further. "We are targeting to collect Rs 400 crore from land sales by the end of the current financial year," Acharya said.