Vijayawada: Asian Development Bank ( ADB ), which has approved Rs 4,215 crore in two tranches, is now focusing on creating a startup area of about 10,000 acres as a part of Visakhapatnam Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) in two nodes at Visakhapatnam and Srikahahasti.Interacting with TOI at Velagapudi secretariat on Thursday, ADB vice president Wencai Zhang said that master planning for two nodes out of the four identified nodes is completed. According to him, the focus of VCIC to build infrastructure to bring in investments in clusters spread across the startup area total of 10,000 acres and about 4,524 acres in first phase.He said that the ADB estimates show that VCIC will be a growth engine for the state. It will give a major boost to the manufacturing sector that contributed only 12% of the state’s GDP in 2015 when the VCIC was conceived. When fully developed, the corridor will have a multiplier impact on trade and employment.“Our ADB study estimates that VCIC development could increase manufacturing output by 14 times, from 10 billion dollars in 2017 to 139 billion dollars by 2045. An estimated 9.5 million additional jobs are expected to be created by 2045” vice president Zhang said.Expressing happiness that ADB is satisfied with the overall progress on VCIC and working with AP government, he said that ADP is interested in under privilege areas of the state, and not just in urban infrastructure. “A rural drinking water project for AP is in pipeline, we will fund to the tune of Rs 500 crore, the project is expected to be rolled out by end of next year,” Zhang said. They are funding for the drinking water and irrigation in states like West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. However their focus is only VCIC in AP as of now.Zhang also said that all the environmental safeguards are rightly placed in the project by the industries department and there are no concerns expressed by any sections on this project. The major concern would land acquisition for road project as part of the VCIC, but there are safeguards in place.Zhang said that ADB gives utmost priority in marginalized sections like poor and women in policy making and feedback process in developing projects. They will be keen on creating community based groups including women in this project. Zhang met chief secretary Dinesh Kumar to discuss the project progress.

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