HYDERABAD: Major industries minister J Geeta Reddy and information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, both from Telangana, have differing perceptions over the likely flow of investments into the region. The two minister at first, at a press conference here on Monday, dismissed as baseless the contention of some Telangana protagonists that the region was neglected in the matter of new industries.
They even reeled out statistics in support of their argument.
But towards the end of the conference, Lakshmaiah, differed with Geeta and said he agreed with the contention of G Vivek (MP) who had said that the CII Partnership Summit went on more like an Andhra summit.
Denying that Telangana was meted out a raw deal at the summit as far as new investment proposals were concerned, they said that as many as 41 new projects, including a few mega units, were set to be launched in the region.
The projects include gas-based power plants, automobiles, IT and other sectors, and will come up in Karimnagar, Rangareddy, Khammam, Medak, Nalgonda, Adilabad and Mahboobnagar districts.
The investments will be of the order of Rs 1 lakh crore which comes to around 16 percent of the entire investments.
“Not lagging behind are public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as BDL, BEL, ECIL and Midhani which have announced expansion programmes by having new units in various districts in Telangana,’’ Geeta Reddy said.
Besides, pending projects such as the Shankarpally gas-based power plant, expansion of the Kothagudem thermal power plant, Elgin gas-based power project in Karimnagar will start soon.
Asserting that no injustice was done to the Telangana region, she explained that investors would always decide on the region and place keeping in mind availability of raw material and manpower, and other factors. The Andhra region got advantage this time because three investors came forward to establish petroleum refineries with investments of about Rs 1 lakh crore, she explained.
Geeta Reddy admitted that investors had not shown interest in the automobile sector as most of the automobile companies were going to Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka which had the required infrastructure and well-established ancillary unit network.
In the case of Andhra Pradesh, the state has just made a beginning with Mahindra Tractors coming forward to establish an automobile unit at Zaheerabad in Medak district.
The state government gave VAT exemption to the unit.
Referring to the announcement made by Union minister for commerce and industries Anand Sharma on a National Industrial and Manufacturing Zone in the south encompassing Andhra Pradesh, Geeta Reddy said the state government started the process of identifying 25,000 hectares of land for the prestigious project.
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