Rayalaseema: India’s new industrial hub

C.Chronic drought and resulting famines have been an integral part of Rayalaseema, which has some of the driest places in India.

However, the economic landscape here has undergone a noticeable transformation in the last fifteen years, with some mega manufacturing industries stepping in with huge investments. Apart from agriculture and horticulture flourishing in isolated areas, Rayalaseema has never had any major industrial activity to boast of, but this is changing rapidly and in no small part.

Numerous cotton ginning and pressing, textile mills and mineral-based units were the first industries to arrive in the region in the mid-20th century. Several large-scale industries were subsequently established, including a number of renewable energy projects such as the state-owned Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant, Dalmia Bharat and Zuari cement plants in the Kadapa-Kurnool belt, and ultra-mega solar parks in Kadapa and Kurnool districts.

After a huge gap thereafter, the stage was set for another tranche of massive investments; the most prominent of which is the integrated steel plant built by the JSW Group in the Kadapa district; A number of defense sector projects such as DRDO’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft integration and flight test center at Puttaparthi, Bharat Forge’s defense power facility at Madakasira and HFCL’s high precision ammunition manufacturing unit in Sri Sathya Sai district; and the Royal Enfield manufacturing facility near Tirupati. There’s also Space City, which is set to take shape near the country’s only rocket launch pad in Sriharikota.

These are just a few of the projects that are transforming parts of the Rayalaseema region into manufacturing hubs.

A gradual explosion

The Rayalaseema region had been starving for centuries due to its location in the rain shadow region of the Deccan plateau and its resulting inability to fully capture the abundant rains normally brought by the southwest and northeast monsoons.

But over the years, vast stretches of barren land that remained untouched by entrepreneurs have become beehives of industrial activities, with the 2014-19 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government and the current TDP-led ruling coalition offering attractive incentives and creating the necessary infrastructure that has brought about an industrial revolution of sorts in this resource-rich but arid region.

The establishment of India’s only KIA Motors automobile manufacturing facility in Anantapur (the facility is currently located in Sri Sathya Sai district) in 2019 has triggered a steady flow of major investments into this region. Royal Enfield’s entry into Tirupati from Tamil Nadu, the only State where Eicher Motors currently manufactures the iconic motorcycles, complements the existing automotive ecosystem in Anantapur, positioning the region as a growing hub for vehicle manufacturing.

What has clearly clinched all these projects is the government’s focus on ‘ease of doing business’ and its subsequent evolution towards ‘speed of doing business’ and the government’s tireless efforts to promote Rayalaseema as an investment destination through the State Investment Promotion Board.

While the government is doing its best to roll out the red carpet to investors across the industrial production spectrum, it now has its sights set on consolidating the region’s leadership in horticultural crop production. Accordingly, the food processing sector is being aggressively promoted.

Looking back, it was JSW Group’s Rayalaseema Steel Plant, whose foundation stone was laid on July 3, that gave impetus to the industrialization of this region; The investment rollout for Phase I is ₹4,500 crore (1 MTPA capacity) out of the total proposed investment of ₹16,350 crore.

From then on, several new major industries began to take concrete shape in Sri City, adding to the ‘basic manufacturing sector’ that was gaining momentum in Rayalaseema.

The current government is doing its best to attract investors to this region, which has been inauspicious for decades, and the positive result of its efforts can be seen in the fact that these projects, which were once only on paper, are starting to become reality.