The row over the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project has been put to an end by the Government deciding to spare Kakinada rural area for the city's future expansion and to shift the ONGC refinery from the vicinity of Port to Thondangiarea. The Government assured the villagers in the vicinity of the area, would now only acquire 260 acres of private land. The relevant notification will be issued soon.
Stating that the land acquisition process would commence immediately after the issue of notification by the weekend. Mr.Anil Kumar said that the spadework regarding the identification of the lands along with survey numbers was already competed. The lands acquisition would be over within the next six months period. He said the foundation stone for the ONGC refinery was likely to be laid in the month of January or February first week. A bio diesel plant also proposed to be set up along the refinery encouraging the local ryots to take up cultivation of bio diesel plants such as Jatropha. The Collector said that compensation to lands would be paid according to the rules and the proposal of lad to land did not come up during the final talks held at Hyderabad last week.