Chittoor makes big strides on path of development

Chittoor district is treading the path of development rapidly when it comes to facilities in the hinterland, highway infrastructure and employment through industrialisation, if its performance during the last financial year through the tangible results achieved in black and white are the indication. Collector P.S. Pradyumna, who recently completed one year in office, spoke to The Hindu on the strategies adopted to keep Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s home turf ahead in the race.

Chittoor has already hit the headlines by becoming India’s first ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) district, with the construction of a whopping 2.39 lakh individual sanitary latrines (ISLs).

Rural infrastructure

Adding sheen to rural infrastructure, the district has also created a record by adding 630 km of internal roads last year and set an ambitious target of 800 km for the current year. “Every street in every village will have cement concrete roads. All the approach roads to panchayats will be converted into BT roads,” the Collector says.

The task on the national highways front is no less challenging. The Chittoor-Bengaluru national highway is being widened and has been laid as a concrete road. “We intend to complete the Krishnagiri-Palamaner and Palamaner-Madanapalle stretches soon and start six-laning of the Chittoor-Tirupati-Naidupet stretch by June. By August, four-laning of the Tirupati-Piler-Madanapalle stretch of the NH-205 will be undertaken,” Mr. Pradyumna says, listing out the schedule. Similarly, the Srikalahasti-Tada road that provides the vital link from the district to the Kolkata-Chennai NH will also be made four-lane.

Raining jobs

The district has achieved a milestone in job creation. Riding on the record creation of 20,000 jobs through industries alone, Mr. Pradyumna has confidently projected the target to 50,000 this year by identifying four industrial clusters. The Srikalahasti-Thottambedu-Routhu Suramala belt is being developed for ceramic and automobile sectors. Around 400 acres have already been allotted in Routhu Suramala to Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) for further expansion. The Tirupati-Renigunta belt has clearly emerged an electronics and hardware zone, with big names such as Reliance and Xiaomi setting up base. The third cluster is Piler-Palamaner-Kuppam belt. “Piler has a rich source of talented workforce, while Palamaner-Kuppam area will become home for food processing, garment-making and shoe manufacturing units,” he points out. Several Chennai-based companies are evincing interest in Nagari region for setting up plastic-based industries, which will be the fourth cluster.