CRDA Commissioner Aims High for Amaravati

CRDA Commissioner Aims High for Amaravati

VIJAYAWADA: About 50,000 acres of forest land, once denotified would be available for building industries in Capital Region, Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) commissioner N Srikanth said here on Saturday.

Speaking on -- Build Amaravti: Invest in Development, A Shared Responsibility -- at the CII Vijayawada Zone Annual Meeting, Srikanth said that of the 50,000 acres, half would be in Guntur and the remaining half in Krishna district. The outer ring road that is being planned would be close to these areas, he said.

He said the futuristic city of Amaravati is drawing a lot of attention across the world and several countries including China, Singapore, Japan and UK are showing interest in investing here since there are tremendous opportunities. He said that China, for instance, was looking for a barter system where by AP which is strong in IT and pharma would invest in China and in return China would invest in AP in area of electronics in which it is strong.

Srikanth said that the challenge that lay before the state was in making the large agriculture workforce industry-ready by imparting necessary skills in them. In the next five to 10 years, as the areas earmarked for agriculture would be converted into industrial zones, the agriculture workforce needs to be ready to take up the challenge.

He said that as it was necessary for skill upgradation, the CII could help the government by explaining to it the kind of skills they expect from the manpower that would be positioned for the future industrial needs. In the beginning the kind of workforce Amaravati would need would be in the areas of construction, equipment handling, housekeeping and so on but later on they should have new skills that the industry would expect from them, he said.

Srikanth, explaining the contours of the Amaravti in the making, did not forget to mention sports city which he said would be developed in such a way that it would be able to host Olympics. “May be after 20 years, the sports city that we are talking about now, should be able to host Olympics. This is what the chief minister is expecting,” Srikanth said.

Those who spoke included CII Vijayawada zone chairman G Venkateswara Rao, former chairman B Ashok Reddy, HN Ram Prasad (ITC) and P Venkat Ram Reddy, vice-chairman CII Vijayawada Zone.

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