Andhra Pradesh attracted ₹9.5 lakh crore investments in 11 months: Lokesh

Minister for HRD Nara Lokesh on Wednesday claimed that the NDA-led government under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu achieved in 11 months what the previous YSRCP regime could not in five years—attracting a record ₹9.5 lakh crore worth of investments with the potential to generate over 8.5 lakh jobs.

Chairing a high-level meeting at his Undavalli residence with his cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats on employment generation, Lokesh—who also heads the Cabinet Committee on Employment Generation—said 78 major industrial proposals worth ₹9.2 lakh crore and 1,19,580 MSME proposals worth ₹13,895 crore have been signed since the coalition assumed power.

He emphasized continuous monitoring of projects through sector-specific Project Monitoring Units (PMUs) within the Economic Development Board (EDB), especially for key investors such as NTPC, BPCL, Reliance and Tata Power.

Highlighting opportunities in beach tourism, Mr. Lokesh called for speedy permissions and infrastructure support for luxury projects like Oberoi and Varun Beach Sands in Visakhapatnam. He directed officials to accelerate land and utility allotment for renewable energy projects and urged exploration in beach sand and coal gasification mining.

The Minister also underscored the need for a strong skill-based ecosystem to train youth for emerging industries and instructed the integration of WhatsApp governance to fast-track investor approvals. He proposed linking MSMEs with the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) to enhance job creation.

Among those present were Ministers Ponguru Narayana (Municipal Administration and Urban Development), Kandula Durgesh (Tourism), T.G. Bharat (Industries), Kondapalli Srinivas (MSME), Kollu Ravindra (Mines and Geology) and Gottipati Ravi Kumar (Energy), along with senior officials N. Yuvaraj, Ajay Jain, Saikanth Varma, Katamneni Bhaskar, Abhishek Kishore, Kamalakar Babu and Praveen Kumar.

Published - June 04, 2025 09:01 pm IST