Amaravati: In formationTechnology and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh met corporate honchos in Mumbai on Monday and pitched the State’s emerging opportunities in industrial infrastructure, logistics, and urban development. During a series of meetings, Lokesh held talks inter alia with Sadat Shah, head of India investments, and Prakrit Mehta, director (Leasing) of ESR Group, a leading Asia-Pacific real estate and logistics investment platform. The Minister highlighted the Plug & Play Industrial Parks Policy 4.0, unveiled recently under the leadership of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, calling it “a game-changer for industrial growth”.

The IT Minister said: “We are developing over 1,000 acres of mega industrial parks along the Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, and Tirupati corridors.”

“Andhra Pradesh is also setting up three to five large logistics parks near its ports and multimodal logistics hubs at Visakhapatnam and Kakinada. There is vast scope for cold-chain infrastructure, as the State contributes nearly 70 per cent of India’s shrimp production,” he amplified.

The Minister invited the ESR Group, which manages assets worth 154 billion US dollars in the Asia-Pacific region and 1.7 billion US dollars in India, to invest in container freight stations, warehouse construction, and port-based logistics for the state’s growing sea export sector.

Lokesh also met Rustomjee Group chairman Boman Irani, whose company has developed more than 25 million sq ft of luxury residential projects across India and has 43 million sq ft in the pipeline. Describing Visakhapatnam as “a fast-growing metropolis fueled by IT and data center investments”, Lokesh urged the group to build luxury townships and gated communities to support the city’s urban expansion.

The Minister said Andhra Pradesh, thanks to the vision of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, is emerging as “India’s next destination for smart industrial and urban development”, combining pro-investor policies with world-class infrastructure and logistics access.