Khammam Rich in Natural Resources Awaits Development

The district is rich in natural resources

Khammam: A world of opportunities await people in Khammam district, as the district is bestowed with abundant natural resources, besides having Singareni coal mines and other major industries. A large population of tribals lives in the district.

However, the key for the success lies on how the authorities harness the vibrant industrial potential of the district, which can facilitate accelerated economic growth in Telangana.

The State government too had recently requested the Centre to set up an airport in Kothagudem considering it as the hub for many industries such as SCCL, Navbharat, ITC, Heavy Water Plant and KTPS.

A couple of days ago, the SCCL has announced plans to recruit about 5,500 persons at various levels in unskilled, technical and executive cadres. The recruitment covers four districts – Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad.

The expansion works of the ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division (PSPD) with an investment of about Rs 3,500 crore are already underway after the government had cleared the allotment of 300 hectares last year. With this, the capacity of the unit will be increased to one million tonne a year from 5 lakh tonne.

The inclusion of Khammam City in the list of Centre-sponsored Smart Cities programme has also come like a huge opportunity for the all-round development of the Municipal Corporation, which is beset with a host of problems, especially drinking water and poor infrastructure. It may be mentioned here that Khammam was upgraded as a municipal corporation three-and-a-half years ago.

Besides augmenting power generation, the upcoming project, Super-critical unit 12 (1X 800 MW) of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) (Stage VII) is also a huge boost for the socio-economic development of the region. An expert committee from the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has already toured Bayyaram, Kothagudem and Palvancha mandals as part of feasibility study for setting up of an integrated steel plant.

The government is also having proposals to set up an Information Technology Park and a Solar Park in Kothagudem mandal.

It may be mentioned here that a team of officials from the Revenue Department and Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) identified 20,474 acres of land suitable for setting up of industries relating to the sectors of food processing, Information Technology (IT), pharmaceutical, and solar power in the district.
To note, the district has abundant resources like coal, iron ore, granite, dolomite, barytes, copper, graphite and quartz.

SCCL’s efforts to help the unemployed youth of the region explore job opportunities in the Indian Army have also yielded good results as the Secunderabad Army Recruitment division has been conducting the recruitment drive for the last few years. On Wednesday, this year’s recruitment rally got underway in Kothagudem.

“Plans are afoot to raise a full-fledged India Reserve (IR) Battalion at the coal town of Kothagudem,” Parliamentary Secretary (CM’s Office) Jalagam Venkata Rao said, recalling that the Tribal Battalion (APSP) at Gangaram village under Sathupalli mandal was set up when he was the legislator of Sathupalli.

On the flip side, major industrial projects such as a food processing park at Buggapadu under Sathupalli mandal and Irradiation Plant in Khammam city are still non-starters.

The enormous eco-tourism potential of the district got a dent following the merger of the seven mandals of the district with the residuary Andhra Pradesh. However, the district still has quite a few tourists’ destination points in Kinnerasani wildlife sanctuary, Wyra, Bhadrachalam and Jamalapuram temple (known as Telangana Tirupati).

By: Adepu Mahender