Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday (March 4) that the foundation stone for ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel’s Anakapalli plant would be laid this month and for Google’s data center in Visakhapatnam in April.
In addition, the Tata group has invested ₹6,000 crore in the state. A coalition government could attract these and other marquee investments by carefully resurrecting the state’s brand image, which was destroyed by the previous YSRCP government. With the efforts of the TDP-led government, Andhra Pradesh would become a $2.40 trillion economy by 2047, he claimed.
In a statement during a discussion on grant requests for various departments in the Assembly, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said that the government was giving fast track clearance by introducing 26 sectoral policies focusing on the development of industrial parks in each of the 175 assembly constituencies and that the industrial status had given a big boost to the tourism sector, the potential of which was largely untapped.
He said the government has so far provided jobs to 6.28 lakh individuals, including 30,500 through mega DSC and police recruitments, and claimed that the economic regions of Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati are taking the economy to a higher growth trajectory. The shift from Ease of Doing Business to Speed of Doing Business has given AP an edge over other states in attracting investment in various sectors, he noted.
Further, the CM said that public health and Brand AP are the top priorities of the government and steps have been taken to introduce a Universal Health Policy under which every citizen would be entitled to free medical services up to ₹2.50 lakh. According to him, the government was building medical colleges under Public Private Partnership (PPP), insisting that they would be government assets.
The liquor scam could be worth as much as ₹10,000 crore, going by the evidence unearthed by the SIT, he said, informing the House that the government had set up a cabinet sub-committee and launched a comprehensive review of the excise duty system, saying that around 30,000 people had died allegedly due to consumption of low-quality liquor-24-1-09.
Kakinada explosion
Warning those in illegal firecracker businesses of dire consequences for endangering the lives of hapless workers, the CM said that apart from criminal action, the government would go to the extent of confiscating and auctioning the assets of these cracker makers, which is a clear violation of norms. The proceeds would be given as compensation to the victims.
Referring to the recent major blast at Vetlapalam in Kakinada district which killed 26 people so far, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said that the Suryasri fireworks unit was licensed in 2022 and employed more than the permitted number of workers and stored huge quantity of explosives.
The government would take care of the education of the children in the families of the deceased. In addition, houses would be built for such families.
Published – 04 March 2026 21:36 IST
