Five industrial policies in 100 days: AP CM

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced formulation of new policies on MSME, food processing, the IT, electronic and cloud, and textile policy which will be introduced in the next 100 days. In a meeting held with the industries department here on Wednesday, Naidu reviewed various investment agreements made in the last 10 years and ordered officials to prepare five new policies to attract new investment.

Naidu said during his previous government, agreements were made for investments worth Rs 16 lakh crore and alleged that industrialists stepped back due to the policies of the YSRC government. “Many companies have cancelled investment agreements and new companies did not not come to the state as the industrialists were subjected to political harassment by the previous government. There is a need to create trust among the industrialists again,” he maintained.

Naidu directed officials to develop proposals for four new industrial clusters at Kuppam, Moolapet, Chilamathur Donakonda or Pamuru and Central approvals should be obtained. He ordered them to make efforts to attract electronics, pharma, food processing and hardware companies to the respective clusters. He also discussed the progress made in Krishnapatnam, Nakkapalli, Orvakallu and Kopparthi industrial nodes.

The Chief Minister reviewed the status of the bulk drug park to be set up at Nakkapalli at a cost of Rs 11,542 crore, the NTPC Green Hydrogen Hub to be set up at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore and the BPCL projects currently under discussion.

He directed to reduce the land prices in the Mallavalli Industrial Area to encourage investments. The CM said that while 14,125 acres were made available through 64 industrial parks between 2014 and 2019, only 31 parks came up during 2019-2024. The Chief Minister directed the officials that those who had signed agreements but went back due to the policies of the YSRC government should be consulted again and if necessary he would talk to them. The Chief Minister has set a goal to the department to complete the industrial projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore investment in a year and 1,36,260 new jobs should be created.

Officials said 1,382 acres of the land collected for industries in various areas were taken for housing plots. They explained that while 66 per cent of incentives were paid during the previous TD government's tenure, only 34 per cent were paid during the YSRC government. The CM assured the officials that he would look into the matter of industrial incentives and asked them to focus on making the state a green hydrogen and green energy hub.