Total investment is expected to be around ₹22,000 crore

The State government intends to develop the six Economic Cities with a view to promote housing and also generate employment in the State. In all, the six Economic Cities are expected to come up in an extent of 980 acre with a total built up area of 83.6 million sft. The total investment is expected to be around ₹22,000 crore.

To act as ‘facilitator’

The private players would develop the Economic Cities on lands owned by them. The developers would have to provide internal infrastructure and has responsibility of operation and maintenance for a period of five years. The government would act as ‘facilitator’ and provides incentives such as exemptions on the fee and charges like building licence fee, NALA (The Andhra Pradesh Non-Agricultural Lands Assessment Act) charges for land use modification.

“The beauty of the scheme is to leverage the incentives given under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) for affordable housing, including Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Lower Income Group (LIG) and Middle Income Group (MIG),” says a senior official.

The government would give exemptions like stamp duty and registration charges to beneficiaries of the affordable housing. More than 75,000 people would be benefited with this move. As many as 75,233 houses are earmarked for LIG and EWS category as against the total housing of 88,987 provisioned, the official says.

1.20 lakh jobs

The Economic Cities are expected to generate about 1.20 lakh jobs and about 40,000 construction jobs as the government proposes to encourage non-polluting MSME, startups, light and green industries are encouraged in the Economic Cities, sources say.

According to official sources, the Malaxmi group is expected to invest about ₹ 2,700 crore and construct 20,000 dwelling units at Chevuturu and Pinapaka near Vijayawada. LEPL group will invest more than ₹12,870 crore and construct 23,350 houses in Amaravati, and invest ₹718 crore in Visakhapatnam to construct 7,358 houses. Likewise, Raaga Mayuri will construct 8,960 houses at Thandrapadu and Tadakanapalli near Kurnool and will invest more than ₹1,660 crore. Chaitanya developers would construct 11,664 houses at Velugubanda and Rajamahendravaram with an investment of about ₹1,880 crore. And, R.S. Builders would invest close to ₹2,500 crore to construct 17,655 houses in Atchyutapuram and Veduruvada in Visakhapatnam, official document says.