AP Cabinet approves land allotment to industrial park

The state Cabinet, which met here on Wednesday, has approved allotment of 334.95 acre for setting up an industrial park in Visakhapatnam district and 6 acre of land to Bangalore-based Indian Silk Mills for establishment of a mini spun silk mill in Anantapur district.

Briefing mediapersons about the Cabinet decisions, minister for information and public relations, J Geeta Reddy, said that the market value fixed for acquisition of land for the industrial park ranged from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh an acre. The proposed park would be spread across the villages of G Kodur, Tamaram and Bheemboinapalli.

In the case of the mini spun silk mill, the Cabinet had ratified the action of the commissioner of sericulture who handed over to Indian Silk Mills 3 acre in Parigi village and an equal extent in Rachepalli village for a period of 10 years on payment of a lease amount of Rs 79.110 and Rs 18,000 a year respectively. It had also decided to renew the lease rent in 2016 on mutually-agreed terms and conditions.

According to the minister, the spun silk mill is the first-of-its-kind in the state and will benefit 10,000 farmers. Each farmer will get an additional income of Rs 5,000 a year following the establishment of the mill.

The Cabinet also decided to constitute a Group of Ministers to work out the modalities of extending financial help not only to weavers societies but also directly to handloom weavers.

This apart, the minister said, it had been decided to extend for another three years the Rs 50 crore government guarantee to the AP State Cooperative Bank towards operation of cash credit limits by AP State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (Apco). This would benefit over 100,000 handloom weavers under Apco’s fold.

Stating that an amount of Rs 5,550 crore had been spent on the development of Hyderabad and its surroundings in the past five years, she said an action plan was also being prepared for the modernisation of the city’s underground drainage system at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

Similarly, proposals for taking up Phase-II of the multi-mode transport system (MMTS) would be sent to the Centre, which would be asked to share the cost of the project. On the other hand, Phase-I of the outer ring road comprising 80 kms would be completed by next year. The second phase of an equal distance would be executed by 2012, the minister said.