Nellore: Even though over 10,000 acres acquired for different SEZs are lying idle in Nellore district, in some cases for over a decade, the government is once again going ahead with land acquisition for the proposed Chennai-Visakhapatnam and Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridors (CBIC). With respect to land lying idle in special economic zones, Kisan SEZ, promoted by Iffco, has allotted around 400 acres of land out of 2,776 acres of land under its possession since 1994. The land was pooled from private, endowment and government and handed over to Iffco to set up a fertiliser factory in 1994.
The fertiliser giant came out with SEZ proposal in 2008 after the fertiliser project was shelved due to skyrocketing cost of naphtha, which is the base to run the unit. Similarly 2,000 acres allocated to Reliance group in Muthukur mandal for Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Thermal Power Project is lying without any utility since 2011. Reliance Power announced its decision to put off the project in January 2016, due to escalated coal cost from Indonesia and still the lands are lying with the company.
The case is no different with regard to 4,731 acres given to Krishnapatnam Infratech Pvt Ltd, an offshoot of Krishnapatnam Port Company, to establish a special economic zone. The proposal was to provide 12,000 acres in two phases, but the exercise came to a halt after procuring 4,731 acres because of some field-level problems. Company officials said SEZ permission was denied to them in 2011 because the land lacks connectivity.
In case of Sri City, located in neighbouring Chittoor district, 40 per cent of land was utilised out of the 8,000 odd acres allotted to the multiproduct special economic zone. State bifurcation and confusion over new industrial policy in the backdrop of demands for special category status is one of the major reasons for the snail phase of development of special economic zones, industrial officials said.
Now, the government plans to acquire 15,976 acres for the CBIC within 50 km radius to Krishnapatnam Port. The plan is to make use of 4,700 acres available with Krishnapatnam Infratech and 1,500 acres with APIIC. The big task for the revenue officials is to procure nearly 4,000 acres of patta land, besides 5,000 acres of government land assigned to several people.
The Revenue wing on its part has completed the survey of the identified land on war footing and also categorised the land such as assigned, CJFS, government and patta land with a list of people cultivating them. APICC officials said they need Rs 1,000 - 1,200 crore to pay compensation for acquisition of the proposed land. APIIC sought Rs 357 crore to start land acquisition a few months ago and is waiting for response from the government.
