A Dossier on Visakhapatnam
Five bids received in response to call for expression of interest
Visakha City, February 2, 2010
The consultant for preparation of Master Plan of Visakhapatnam-Kakinada Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) will be finalized soon. The PCPIR Special Development Authority's board will meet anytime to take a final decision on five bids it received in response to the call for expression of interest from firms of international repute. Special Decisions, Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., Infotech Enterprises Ltd., Arvee Associates Architect Engineers and Consultants and Sai Consulting Engineers were the firms who had submitted their financial and technical bids for drafting the master plan.
Chief Minister, K Rosaiah during his recent visit announced the government's interest in giving push to the PCPIR project. The delay in convening the board meeting is attributed to change in the guard in AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and VUDA. The new APIIC Vice Chairman and Managing Director and the VUDA Vice Chairman, along with the District Collector and other key officials are expected to take stock of the situation.
Apart from the Coastal Corridor fiasco, wherein the State Government shelved the proposal to develop a road parallel to the coast to boost investments in PCPIR due to criticism from Opposition parties, NGOs and fishermen's outfits, the recession also dampened the spirit in carrying forward the project. APIIC which is the nodal agency for implementing the project, is hopeful of getting an investment of Rs.3,43,000 crore over a period of five to seven years and is expected to generate employment directly for 5.25 lakh and indirectly for 6.75 lakh people.
It may be recalled that the VUDA Vice-Chairman B Sridhar has said that Visakhapatnam city and other areas under its jurisdiction had tremendous potential for development as compared to other towns and areas.
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