Draft Master Plan of PCPIR by July-end

The draft Master Plan of Visakhapatnam-Kakinada Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (VK PCPIR) will be ready by the end of July after which a public hearing will be carried out, Vice-Chairman of the PCPPIR and VUDA Kona Sasidhar has said. The draft will be published by the end of July so as to elicit pubic opinion. The hearing may be conducted at two places considering the area of the PCPIR. The conduct of the public hearing will pave the way for environmental clearance.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday to share his experiences of a tour to Canada and the Netherlands as a part of the team from the State to study the industry conditions there, he said the LEA Associates that had been awarded the work of preparing the master plan had conducted a survey in 71 villages and a total of 110 villages have to be covered in 10 mandals of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts.

Asserting that wider consultations would be carried out with all groups concerned including fishermen and farmers, he said the environment impact assessment (EIA) study entrusted to EPTRI was also going on simultaneously. It has to collect the data for three seasons and for one season the work was completed.

Terming as ‘misgivings’ the view doing the rounds that large extent of land would be acquired or villages would be vacated, Mr. Sasidhar said of the 603 sq km area of the PCPIR, only 40 per cent was processing area and the remaining 60 per cent is meant for supporting infrastructure. It was being confused with the proposed coastal corridor.

Since in about 35 to 36 per cent area, industries have already been established, scope for new industries was limited. Already land has been acquired by APIIC and further land might be required for roads or establishing rail linkages, he elaborated.

He asserted that a transparent process would be followed in informing people about PCPIR.