Nunegundlapalle (Andhra Pradesh), May 7 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday inaugurated the Amara Raja Growth Corridor (ARGC) in Chittoor district.
The industrial park, located on a 500-acre plot in Nunegundlapalle village, is aimed at attracting over Rs.4,500 crore investment in the next three years, officials of the battery manufacturer Amara Raja Group, which supplies batteries to Honda, Hero and Mahindra, among others, said.
It holds the potential to create over 20,000 jobs in the district, they added.
"We need more industrialists. They should come to the state and set up industries. We need hundreds and thousands of companies like Amaraja batteries," the chief minister said on the occasion.
Naidu also inaugurated Mangala Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of the Amara Raja Group.
Mangala is in the business of plastics injection moulding. It was set up with an investment of Rs.200 crore and can produce 10 metric tonnes of goods with a potential to employ 800 people.
Industrial and automotive batteries are being already manufactured in ARGC.
Plans are afoot to facilitate manufacturing of engineering plastics, auto components, electronics, electrical components and tubular storage batteries, Amara Raja officials said.
"Amara Raja has been continuously creating newer opportunities over the last three decades, guided by the core purpose of improving the quality of life by building institutions that provide better access to better opportunities, goods and services," said Ramachandra Naidu Galla, the chairman, Amara Raja Group.
ARGC is situated on the national highway 4, between Chennai and Bengaluru, and is strategically located on the proposed Bengaluru-Chennai- Krishnapatnam Industrial Corridor, said Amara Raja officials.
"Our new plant has the capacity to manufacture batteries (various kinds) up to 1.4 billion ampere hours and currently we are manufacturing 0.9 billion ampere hours of batteries," said Ramachandra Naidu Galla, chairman, Amara Raja group.
Talking more on increasing the battery manufacturing capacity, Galla said that plans to open another battery plant of 1.4 billion ampere hours in two years and achieve a capacity of 2.8 billion ampere hours capacity are on the cards.