Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has directed that Visakhapatnam should be transformed into another Mumbai city in the next seven years and instructed the officials to identify one lakh acres for various projects. He has directed that the ‘Visakhapatnam Economic Region’ should be transformed into a growth engine for Andhra Pradesh.
He has suggested that 120 billion dollars of wealth should be created from this region by 2032. He revealed that beach roads will be constructed between Moolapet and Kakinada as part of the development of this economic region.
Chief Minister Chandrababu held a NITI Aayog meeting at the Amaravati Secretariat. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the state government, NITI Aayog and ISEG Foundation on the Andhra Pradesh State Energy Transition Road Map.
The government has decided to form the Visakhapatnam Economic Region with 8 districts. Chandrababu said that projects should be set up to increase economic activity in a total of 8 districts within the Visakhapatnam Economic Region, namely Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Anakapalle, Kakinada, East Godavari, Alluri, and Manyam.
The Visakhapatnam region, which has an area of 36,000 square kilometers and a population of 15.5 million, is currently recording a GDP of $ 49 billion, and this region will be crucial in the progress of the state with the possibility of increasing jobs by 20 to 24 lakhs by 2032. The Chief Minister directed that the Visakhapatnam Economic Region be developed with 6 ports, 7 manufacturing nodes, 17 major agricultural fields, 6 service hubs, and 12 tourism hubs.
NITI Aayog officials gave a power point presentation on this. The officials explained to the Chief Minister the plans made as 7 growth drivers such as port, IT, agriculture, tourism, healthcare, urbanization, and infrastructure. They said that 41 priority projects have to be taken up for this.
Officials said that if the Visakhapatnam Economic Region plans can be implemented, 7.5 lakh houses, 10,000 hotel rooms, and up to 20 innovation centers will come up in the next 7 years.
They brought to the attention of the CM that 10 more colleges, 7,000 hospital beds, industries in an area of 20,000 hectares, an office complex in an area of 80 million square feet, and warehouses in an area of 60 million square feet will be provided. The CM said that beach roads will be constructed between Moolapet- Visakhapatnam and Visakhapatnam-Kakinada. He said that these will be connected with national highways.
