CCSAP Report - Ministry of Home Affairs

industries and the Eastern Naval Command. These high-end industries and the
naval base have attracted people from all over the country giving it a
cosmopolitan image and making it attractive to investors in real estate (Box 6.1).
Box 6.1 Regional disparities and real estate investments
The Visakhapatnam based Andhra Pradesh Real Estate Developers‟ Association (APREDA) has
around hundred members, an overwhelming majority of whom are from central coastal Andhra
(CCA) districts of Guntur, Krishna and East and West Godavari districts. Barring a small fraction
from Telangana, the rest are from north coastal Andhra (NCA) districts of Visakhapatnam,
Vizianagaram and Srikakulam. Out these hundred members, about seventy have investments
ranging above ` 100 crore and the rest are in the range of ` 10 to ` 100 crore. The investment
capital comes mostly from the CCA districts. The reasons advanced by these investors for moving
to Visakhapatnam are interesting. These are: (i) Hyderabad has already too many players,
whereas Visakhapatnam has few, even though it is projected as the next growth centre in Andhra
Pradesh; and, (ii) unlike their home districts, there is no competition from consolidation of capital
and political power in any specific caste or community.
NCA has a peculiar social geography and political economy of caste groups. The traditionally
dominant castes of Kshatriya and Brahmins were smaller in number and were not from the
business community. As their upward mobility into the professional class progressed, they
dispersed and their power dissipated. The kapu and velama, forming the majority of population,
are not rich and are also deeply polarized with internal differences. This vacuum in spaces of
power was conducive for the investors from CCA to locate and exert their position in real estate
development in NCA districts.
6.19.02 According to the City Development Plan prepared by the Greater
Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation there are 55 large and medium
manufacturing industries in Visakhapatnam. The rest include 42 private sector
units and 5 units in cooperative sector. Some key industries are the HPCL owned
Visakha refinery, which supplies oil to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Suryapet and
Rajahmundry through a pipeline running 571 km; South Asia LPG Company – a
joint venture of HPCL and Total Gas, a French company; Visakhapatnam Steel
Plant owned by SAIL - supplies steel to other parts of Andhra Pradesh as well as
the country; and other industries like Andhra Petrochemicals, NTPC, BHEL,
Hindustan Shipyard, NSTL etc.
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