Centre picks Kopparthy, Orvakal as smart cities

Vijayawada : Andhra Pradesh will add two more industrial smart cities Orvakal and Kopparthy to its necklace of smart cities as the Union Cabinet has taken a landmark decision to approve 12 new project proposals under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP) with an estimated investment of Rs. 28,602 crore.

Announcing this in New Delhi, Union Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said the Central government is committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh. He said the Central government had also cleared the proposal to develop Hyderabad-Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam-Chennai corridors which would be developed with funds from the Central Government. The Kopparthy industrial corridor in Kadapa district is part of the Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor, the minister said. He said that the industrial smart city would come up in Kopparthy in 2,596 acres and the centre would spend Rs 2,137 crore on this smart city which would provide 54,500 jobs. He said focus would be on attracting manufacturing units for Kopparthy.

The industrial smart city at Orvakal would come up in 2,621 acres and would provide about 45,000 jobs. This would give a big boost in the development of the backward Rayalaseema region, the minister said.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the central government decided to spend Rs 28,602 crore towards three industrial corridors in AP.

He said industrial hubs are coming up in Kopparthi in Kadapa district, Orvakal in Kurnool district in addition to the Pharma cluster in Nakkapalli. He said 25,969 acres will be allotted to Kopparthi industrial hub to provide employment to 54,000 people.

In Orvakal industrial hub, 2,621 acres will be allotted and Rs 2,726 crore will be spent to provide employment to 45,000 people. He said the proactive decisions taken by the central government are likely to bring good days to AP state. Interestingly, this announcement came on the day the state cabinet was meeting. The Chief Minister thanked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for granting two industrial nodes for Andhra Pradesh.