HYDERABAD: After initial hiccups over the extent of land available for the manufacturing sector, the Mallavalli industrial park is emerging as a key manufacturing destination, according to industry sources.The industrial park is 43km from Vijayawada . Demands by farmers for a better price for their land in Mallavalli had led to the delays in finalising the contours of the park, which now is spread over 1,400 acres.According to Anne Sivanageswara Rao of SambaSiva Auto Industries, the decision by Ashok Leyland Ltd., India’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, to set up a bus assembly unit in Mallavalli had served as a force multiplier to encourage other investments in the park.“Land is available at Rs. 16.5 lakh per acre. The government is constructing an approach road to the park from the highway. The road was delayed because local farmers were demanding a higher price for the land to make the road. I am told the AP government paid up to Rs. 30 lakh per acre for acquiring the land for the approach road,” Rao said by phone from Vijayawada on Friday.JSRK Prasad, former president of CII-AP says, “There was a need for another industrial park because there is no room to expand in Jawahar Auto Nagar, and the government finally chose Mallavalli to promote investment in the manufacturing sector.”Prasad said that back in 1966 when the Jawahar Auto Nagar was set up, it had been on the outskirts of Vijayawada. Now the Autonagar is right in the middle of Vijayawada, with no prospects to extend it beyond the 275 acres it originally had.The Mallavalli unit of Ashok Leyland will be the 8th production site of the company. AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for ALL’s bus-assembly unit on 31 March this year. ALL expects to begin commercial production at the assembly plant within six months from the foundation stone-laying ceremony, the company’s CEO and managing director Vinod K Dasari had said in March.ALL had acquired 75 acres of land in the industrial park, with the option of acquiring another 75 acres for future expansion. The Hinduja-owned ALL would be investing Rs 170 crore in the plant.Sivanageswara Rao said that several auto component units would be setting up their manufacturing facilities in Mallavalli to serve as vendors to ALL.“Apart from auto component vendors, the industrial park is also to be a home to a food processing park. The APIIC is developing the infrastructure for a food processing park in Mallavalli,” says Prasad.Besides auto components and food processing, another area that is being focused on for housing in Mallavalli is the logistics sector.

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