Amaravati, Oct 8 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) on Wednesday approved investment proposals to the tune of Rs 1.14 lakh crore.

The 11th SIPB meeting, presided over by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, cleared 26 projects in IT, energy, tourism, aerospace and food processing sectors. These projects are expected to create 67,000 jobs.

The approved projects include what is claimed to be the largest foreign direct investment in the state.

Google subsidiary Raiden Infotech India Limited will set up a data centre in Visakhapatnam with an investment of Rs 87,520 crore. This will be the company’s largest data centre outside the United States.

Officials said Raiden Infotech will set up data centres in three campuses at Rambilli near Tarluvada, Adivaviram, and Achyutapuram in Visakhapatnam.

The Chief Minister and ministers congratulated IT Minister Nara Lokesh on attracting the largest foreign direct investment.

He said that data centres will become a technology game-changer for Andhra Pradesh on the lines of Quantum Valley.

The Chief Minister expressed the opinion that data centres are creating an ecosystem. He exuded confidence that Visakhapatnam will become the next-level AI city.

The SIPB meeting, which lasted for almost three hours, approved projects in the hospitality sector to boost tourism, along with the energy sector.

The Chief Minister commented on this occasion that the investment efforts have yielded positive results in just 15 months. He noted that the SIPB meetings have so far approved investments of Rs 7.07 lakh crore. These projects will provide direct jobs to 6.20 lakh people.

Lokesh proposed that a special corridor should be set up for Rayalaseema on the lines of the economic corridor for the industrial development of Visakhapatnam.

The Chief Minister suggested that three regions should be divided into industrial zones and developed accordingly.

He said that the Visakhapatnam economic region should be set up from East Godavari to Srikakulam, and in the same way, an economic region should be set up from West Godavari to Prakasam with Amaravati as its centre, and another economic development region should be set up with Nellore and Rayalaseema districts.

The CM said that currently, aerospace, electronics, drone cities, as well as automobile corridors are being developed in the Rayalaseema region. In addition, Rayalaseema, which is the centre of horticulture crops, is becoming an agro-processing hub, he said.

–IANS

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