Kia triggers realty boom in Penukonda

Penukonda (Anantapur): The historical town of Penukonda which was once the second capital of emperor Sri Krishnadevaraya is today experiencing transformation as an industrial hub with scores of industrialists making a beeline to establish ancillary units for the Kia Automobiles.

There is a flurry of activity within the 500-acre Kia project site as well as outside the project site and its vicinity. Many realtors visualising the future development prospects are busy purchasing scores of acres of lands for building apartment complexes and group housing to rent out houses for the employees in the context of company announcement that the first car would be rolled out of the company in January 2019.

In the surrounding villages of Gutturu and Palasamudram, the land rates of Rs 5 lakh per acre have skyrocketed to Rs 30-40 lakh per acre depending upon the land location. These rates can be compared with the land values prevailing in Godavari, Krishna and Guntur coastal districts.

Several sign boards have sprung up about the up-coming Korean restaurants. Presently, Hyderabad-based builders are constructing gated community houses with international standards for renting out to Korean nationals. Before the advent of Korean project, double bedroom houses used to be hired for Rs 1,500-2,000 but now they have been hiked to Rs 15,000 or so. Many are demanding Rs 10,000 per one decent room.

The Kia project has brought a sea change in the economy of the surrounding villages. Within the project site of the Kia firm, a South Korean project complex including a training centre, helipad for chartered helicopters landing and a township for 2,000 Korean employees is coming up.

Outside the project too, private builders with farsightedness are developing Korean residential complexes with guest room facility, Korean restaurants and Korean Food points for many more Korean companies which are expected to set up shops as an extension of Korean projects.

A 5-star hotel also would come up at the factory site, according to District Collector Veera Pandian, who spoke to ‘The Hans India’. He revealed that the DRDA personnel would train women in Korean food processing and set up Korean eateries points.

Amaranath Reddy, a septuagenarian, native of Penukonda town is excited at seeing a flurry of activity in the town and the town suddenly changing its colours from a sleepy town to an emerging industrial hub. He expressed apprehensions that the town might be hijacked by outside realtor elements even as locals lured by the sudden spurt in their property value is tempted to sell their property and quit the ancestral town.

Reddy muttered that more than anything, the stillness and silence which reigned supreme in the historical town would be no more as already its tranquillity is disturbed. Presently, the big headlines are 3 lakh cars, 3,000 permanent jobs, 7,000 jobs to daily wage earners and Rs 3,000 crore investment.