Capital buzz makes Mangalagiri hot spot

Realtors thronging the area to enquire about land availability and its cost

As speculation is rife over making Mangalagiri capital for the residuary State, businessmen and industrialists, especially from Hyderabad, are thronging the area to enquire about availability of land along with its cost. File Photo: V. Raju

Even as hunt for a new capital for the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh has not yet begun, Mangalagiri in Guntur district has now become a hub for several real-estate businessmen across the State.

As speculation is rife over making Mangalagiri capital for the residuary State, businessmen and industrialists, especially from Hyderabad, are thronging the area to enquire about availability of land along with its cost. Many businessmen from Hyderabad are driving down to this area on Sundays to test out business prospects.

Enquiries have gone up after Telangana Bill was passed in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

On an average, close to 50 people from Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, and Warangal, among others areas, are visiting Mangalagiri to gauge the pulse. Some are asking for the land abutting the National Highway (NH)-5 connecting Vijayawada and Chennai and others are evincing interest to buy agricultural land a few kilometres away from the NH-5.

“At present, major land transactions are not happening here. People are only coming to see the land and find out the cost,” says a real-estate agent Mollavarapu Koteswara Rao from Mangalagiri.

He explains that the cost of an acre is now ranging from Rs.1.3 crore to Rs.3 crore on the roadside as against Rs.60 lakh to Rs.1 crore three months ago. The cost of a square yard is now Rs.12,000 as against Rs.8,000 in December 2013, he says.

Another reason for increasing land price is that Mangalagiri is part of Vijayawada urban agglomeration and s located between Vijayawada and Guntur on NH-5 going towards Chennai, says Mr. Rao. It’s hardly 12 km drive from Vijayawada.

When contacted, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) president C. Shekhar Reddy says, “It’s too early to invest when the government has not decided about the new capital for Seemandhra. People should be cautious while investing.”

Sources say names of Mangalagiri, Ongole, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Tirupati areas are doing the rounds to develop them as capital.