Big push to Bobbili Growth Centre

Bobbili (Vizianagaram): The Union government has initiated several steps to attract investors for the Industrial Growth Centre at Bobbili by providing all facilities. The AP government has already provided road and telephone connectivity, besides power and water supply to the growth centre. The government after reviewing the scenario has decided to put in place some more amenities to attract the investors.

The government sanctioned the Bobbili Industrial Growth Centre to be set up in 467 acres way back in 1996. The Industries department developed the land with a total number of 507 plots and allotted them to the investors. Some small-scale ferro-alloys firms, tyre-retreading centres, automobile firms, granite polishing units, packaging firms have come up as of now. Over all, the response seems to be dull and there is no worthwhile growth in the centre.

The department allotted about 350 plots to various units, but few started the units as there are several problems. In order to provide more facilities, the centre has sanctioned funds under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme aiming to provide road network, drainage, power and water supply and common services like health centre, canteens, crèches, dormitories, parking areas, etc.

These projects are likely to be functional by March 31 next year. While some firms shut shop due to losses, granite polishing units were closed due to lukewarm response from the international market. China, Malaysia and some other countries have stopped importing granite from India and as a result most of the granite mines in Andhra were closed.

Even the ferro-alloy firms in the district remained closed for more than a year due to high power charges and less demand in the market. The government has announced sops to the ferro firms and some units like Jindal stainless and others were opened at Kothavalasa. But the small units which were established in the Industrial Growth Centre have not been opened yet. The Union government has decided to provide more amenities to attract the investors.

Union minister Nirmala Seetharaman told the Lok Sabha that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had approved two projects under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS) for the development of industrial clusters at Hindupur and Bobbili in Anantapur and Vizianagaram districts, respectively.

The objective of the projects is to provide quality and reliable infrastructure to industrial units located in these clusters; specifically, these projects aim to provide road network, drainage, power and water supply networks and some other common services like health centres, canteens, crèches, dormitories, parking areas, etc. These projects have employment potential of direct employment about 5500 and indirectly 8500 more will be benefited.

District Collector Vivek Yadav said: “We have been conducting meetings and reviewing the progress here. We are encouraging the industrialists by providing many incentives like minimizing taxes, subsidy on power and others too. We are expecting that the condition would be better in the next few months,” he said.

By Koppara Gandhi