Industrial growth in Nellore faces hurdle

Nellore: Legal issues have almost stalled industrial development in SPSR Nellore district. APIIC's proposed industrial parks in four areas of the district, Iffco's Kisan Special Economic Zone and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) research unit could not take off because of legal wrangles. Some owners of land around Kisan SEZ area demand Rs 56 lakh per acre citing the amount collected by SEZ to acquire land for some industries. They have managed to get a stay from the court that has put all industrial activity on hold in the industrial parks developed by APIIC at Bodduvaripalem in Kodavalur mandal, Anantavaram and KK Gunta in Dagadarthi mandal.

Land in these parks is in high demand because of their location close to the National Highway. In case of NIOT, the organisation sought 153 acres for various seafront facilities in Vakadu and Chittedu mandals of Nellore district. This was to validate the working of indigenously developed marine systems in the ocean. The government had identified 56 acres at Pamanji in Chittedu mandal and 40 acres at Vagarru in Vakadu mandal. A grand ceremony was held to lay the foundation stone around two and a half years back for the unit after authorities handed over 40 acres.

Trouble, however, started after the owners of the 56 acres moved court demanding Rs 25 lakh per acre as against Rs 10 lakh offered by the revenue authorities considering the market rate of Rs 4 lakh in the area. Officials negotiated to pay Rs 14 lakh per acre later but the landlords stuck to their demand.

Land price a major issue that is delaying  most initiatives:

According to official sources, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) research unit at Nellore would be established at a cost of over '250 crore. It will allow testing of various equipment and operations to be undertaken in actual sea conditions and would enable demonstration of its various technologies.
This is in addition to a training facility to cater the software development for ocean data analysis and to train students in ocean-related R&D areas.
A guest house and an administrative block are proposed in the same place to manage the sea front facility research activities in all aspects in the same land. The other proposal was a data centre for analysis, data computation and interpretation of ocean data.

In case of IFFCO's Kisan SEZ, a court stay to maintain status quo has put all work on hold. The impact of the cases is such that Cocoa Cola has allegedly not commenced operations as planned in June last year though it procured 150 acres of land in the SEZ. Coca-Cola was  to invest Rs 600 crore to setup 5 beverages units in the land the and the capacity is 570 bottles per minute from each unit. The project would provide direct employment for 250 to 300 persons and indirect employment for more. The legal issues have been coming on the way for Kisan SEZ to allot land to industrial units knocking their doors though nearly 2000 acres  is at its disposal.