Essel World evaluates three places for theme parks

Of the multiple projects the Essel Group plans to develop across ‘Sunrise’ Andhra Pradesh, the proposed theme-based amusement park is a much-talked about venture.

The Group chairman Subhash Chandra Goel has zeroed in on three places for the project and recently visited them. The proposed amusement park will come up in one of these three places—a stretch of 500 acres in Nagarjunasagar at the ‘T’ junction of Nagulavaram village in Macharla mandal of Guntur district; at Gandikota near Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district where the government is said to be offering 3,000 acres and at the picturesque Bhavani Island and its surrounding areas in Vijayawada. The Essel Group is said to have employed Singapore-based Jurong Arcade as consultant, which is studying all aspects of the project. “The firm is expected to submit its feasibility report in a few months,” said a top official of Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC). Sources in the Tourism Department said that the Essel Group would invest funds to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crore initially, but the amount would progressively go up to Rs. 10,000 crore.

The Group also has plans to set up two other multi-billion dollar projects in the State – a solar panel manufacturing project in collaboration with a Chinese company at an investment of around Rs. 13,000 crore and a smart industrial township proposed to be established on 10,000 acres.

Proposed sites

500 acres in Nagarjunasagar at ‘T’ junction of Nagulavaram of Guntur district

3,000 acres in Gandikota near Jammalamadugu of Kadapa district

Bhavani Island and its surrounding areas in Vijayawada