Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said his government was committed to converting the state into a mega industrial hub to give a huge boost to employment and the state's economy. Speaking after laying the foundation stone for Apollo Tyres plant at Chinnapunduru village in Chitoor district, he said about 63 industries with an investment of about Rs 24,600 crore have so far been set up in the residual Andhra Pradesh after the partition of Telangana. Chairman and Managing Director of Apollo Tyres Omkar S Kanwar said the new manufacturing facility to be built on 200 acres here would be the fifth in the country. About Rs 1,800 crore might be spent in the first phase of construction of the new plant that would be completed in a year here and it would be expanded with more investments afterwards, he said. It would provide employment opportunities to over 700 persons, he added. The company said in a statement that 'construction will start within the next six months, and the tyres are expected to start rolling out from this facility in the following 24 months," it added. Apollo said it plans to start with manufacturing of passenger vehicle tyres at this facility due to the growing demand in this segment and will expand later and start production of other categories as well. Kanwar said that while planning for the manufacturing facility, the company has provisioned for the future capacity expansion requirements in India for the next five years. Apollo currently has 4 manufacturing facilities in India -- two (including a leased facility) in the rubber-producing state of Kerala, and one each in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Outside India, the company has a manufacturing facility each in The Netherlands and Hungary.
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