Kakinada District Collector Krithika Shukla on Saturday directed the Aurobindo group to complete the return of 1,443 acres to individual farmers in the Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) on the Kakinada coast. She also told them to speed up the ‘land to land’ exercise wherein more than 700 acres needed to be given to farmers elsewhere, in lieu of the land acquired from them for the KSEZ.
In 2021, the State government had taken a decision to return 2,180 acres to the private land owners in the KSEZ, for which 8,120 acres was gathered for the GMR Group, the developer of the KSEZ. Recently, the Aurobindo group has taken over the KSEZ.
“Land to land exercise pertaining to more than 700 acres falling within the KSEZ should be completed to speed up the initiatives to set up the proposed projects. If it is completed, the developer will have 5,880 acres of dispute-free land for development,” said Ms. Shukla. The entire area of the KSEZ is in the Thondangi and Uppada-Kothapalli mandals.
