Industries Minister M. Goutham Reddy on Friday urged the NITI Aayog to expedite approvals for proposed projects in Andhra Pradesh, which was committed to ensure seamless governance with growing investor confidence for sustainable industrial development.
In a letter addressed to the CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, the Minister drew his attention to the proposed International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) facility and immediate approval for it. The ICAT had issued a letter of intent for establishment of testing facilities and intelligent testing tracks and site visits had also been taken up. He said the project would act as a catalyst for development of automobile industry and thus the ICAT may be advised to establish labs at the earliest.
Subsidy on EVs
Mr. Reddy said the New and Renewable Energy Corporation of Andhra Pradesh wanted to provide 60,000 electric two-wheelers to Gram and Ward Secretariat employees on EMI basis for five years. He requested for additional subsidy to bring down the cost of the EVs as a special case on pilot basis as the Secretariat employees were low paid and extended service to the rural poor.
The Minister appealed to the NITI Aayog official to consider the Rayalaseema region to set up a Giga watt advanced chemical cell battery unit, as industrial land was available in this region which had proximity to Bengaluru and Hyderabad. He said funding support to convert all vehicles into electric vehicles at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, subsidy for battery swapping stations and for electric retrofit kits, especially for three-wheelers and funding to conduct e-Mobility awareness programme would help the State give the much-needed push to the EV sector.
Mr. Reddy said collaboration between NITI Aayog and Andhra Pradesh to improve value addition through inviting mineral-based industries into the State to improve the export competency of the country and to manufacture mining equipment in the State to supply to domestic mining markets would yield great results.
Support to promote the 801 acres of YSR Kadapa district for white goods industry, help in establishment of IT Concept Cities, currently three are proposed at Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Anantapur, and establishment of a 5G testing lab and skilling centre were his other pleas. He said the AP State Skill Development Corporation would be the nodal agency to provide necessary support in setting up this centre.
