Field Inspections Start for Water Pipeline to Orvakal Industrial Hub

Kurnool: Kurnool district administration is taking up field-level inspection at Gargeyapuram for supplying water from the Muchumarri project to the Rs 800 crore Mega Industrial Hub spread over 10,000 acres in Orvakal. The pipeline is expected to come along the national highway 340C.

The state government had initiated the Mega Industrial Hub in March 2021 as part of the Hyderabad Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (HBIC), covering villages of Orvakal, Uppalapadu, Guttapadu, Meedivemula, and N. Konthalapadu in Kurnool district.

The industrial hub has the advantages of Hyderabad-Bengaluru broad gauge railway line running mostly alongside NH 44 in the north-south direction. There is another railway line connecting Hubbali-Dharwad in Karnataka to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, which runs in an east-west direction close to the southern portion of the hub. Road connectivity is facilitated by national highways, Kurnool bypass road, and state highways 30 and 31, apart from important district roads.

The pipeline project is estimated to cost Rs 288 crore. It will bring Krishna waters from Muchumarri to Orvakallu, covering a distance of 57 kilometres. A reservoir will be constructed to store 1 TMC feet of water for the industrial hub.

Landowners, who have provided land for the project, are unhappy that the state government has failed to attract a single industry in the past four years. Mostly, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are expected to come within the hub, which has 198 plots on 43.9 acres. While 46 plots have been allotted, construction work is yet to commence, as there is no supportive infrastructure.

District collector G. Srijana said steps are being taken to lay the pipeline along NH-340C from Nandikotkur to Gargeyapuram. Infrastructure gaps will also be addressed to pave the way for development, she added.