Krishnapatnam Industrial Area (KRIS City) Master Plan

Planning Horizon and Total Area — Notified vs Developed by Target Year

Krishnapatnam Industrial Area (KRIS City) is one of the priority nodes of the Chennai–Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC). Figures for its "total" size vary depending on which document and date you look at, so it is important to separate the overall planning envelope from what is actually being built by the near-term target year.

At the widest level, the north and south sites together admeasure approximately 14,200 acres, spread roughly 60 km apart in Nellore and Chittoor districts. Within this, the North Node — where almost all current activity is concentrated — has an overall site area of 11,096 acres, a figure that lines up with the environmental clearance granted for the "North Industrial Node" Project on 10th May 2022 with an extent of 4490.35 hectares. NICDC's own corridor page similarly lists Krishnapatnam Industrial Area, Andhra Pradesh with a Total Area of 11,098 acres, developed in a 3-phase development structure. A 2023 parliamentary update gave a slightly larger figure, stating that detailed master planning and preliminary design and engineering of the total project area of 12,798 acres had been completed, out of which 2,500 acres was identified as the Phase-1 area. Of the North site, NICDC states that the total area available for development is approximately 10,835 acres once water bodies, roads and existing land uses are excluded.

Against this planning envelope of roughly 11,000–12,800 acres, the area actually being developed by the near-term target year is much smaller: the Phase-1 activation area of 2,139 acres, targeted for substantial completion by 2027 (see Phasing section). This is the key distinction for anyone reading corridor literature — the 11,000+ acre figures describe the long-run notified/master-planned extent, not the land that will be plug-and-play ready by 2027.

The master plan itself is stated to run on a 20-year time horizon, which is the basis for its population and employment allocations.

Land Use Split

A full, itemised land-use table (percentages for industrial, residential, commercial, roads, etc.) has not been published in the sources reviewed. The one specific, sourced figure available is for green area: an Environmental Clearance compliance filing for the North Node states that in the overall Krishnapatnam Node area, 1,531.5 acres (13.8%) is proposed under green area, which constitutes structured green space, with additional buffers — a 15 m buffer from the project boundary as per the master plan and a 40 m green belt near forest blocks.

Beyond the green-belt figure, the plan's own description is qualitative rather than tabulated: the SPV describes its mandate as building a world class city in the region with industry as the main driver of economic development and employment with supporting social and commercial infrastructure, and notes that apart from industrial land allocations, other economic sectors such as knowledge and education, skill development and research, tourism and recreation form key provisions of the Plan, and Kris City provides housing for all income groups supported by open spaces. Readers wanting exact percentage splits for industrial, residential and commercial land should consult the draft master plan document itself (see "Where to Find the Official Plan" below), since New Cities India could not verify a complete official breakdown beyond the 13.8% green-area figure.

Phased Development

The North Node's master plan explicitly splits the node into phases: the North Node is further subdivided into three phases based on the timeline of its development, with Phase-1 planned to commence first, followed by other phases of the North Node and subsequently the South Node. The SPV also describes the design intent that the new city will be built in three phases, with each phase being self-sufficient in terms of mix of industrial land, supporting residential areas, social amenities, open spaces and utilities.

Phase 1 is the only phase with published hectare-level detail. The area of Phase-1 is 2,492 acres, within which the activation area is 2,139 acres, and it is this 2,139-acre (~866 ha) activation area for which EPC works have been tendered and land formally transferred: 2,139.15 acres was allotted from APIIC to the SPV, NICDIT Krishnapatnam Industrial City Development Ltd. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved trunk infrastructure for Phase 1 at an estimated project cost of ₹2,139.44 crore. A 2025 news report states authorities are targeting 2,500 acres of Phase 1 by February 2027, and other reporting indicates the Krishnapatnam node is expected to deliver plug-and-play infrastructure by late 2026. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Krishnapatnam Node in early January 2025.

Phases 2 and 3 of the North Node, and the separate South Node in Chittoor district, are acknowledged in planning documents but no public source reviewed gives their specific hectare figures or target years — these remain to be detailed in later master-plan updates.

Population and Employment Targets

The most specific population figure comes from the project's own master-plan summary: the Plan allocates development of land sufficient to accommodate a population of about 467,800 workers and 291,000 residents over a 20-year time horizon — a combined figure of roughly 758,800 people.

Employment estimates have varied across different planning stages and years. An early 2017 estimate at the time the State Support Agreement was signed projected approximately 5,82,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities from the node. A 2021 government order referencing the Preliminary Design Report gave a longer-range figure, stating it was envisaged that around 1 million direct and indirect jobs will be generated by 2040 from sectors including food processing, automobiles, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electrical equipment and electronics. Most recently, a June 2025 government review tied a jobs figure specifically to the smaller Phase-1 footprint, citing the Krishnapatnam Node (2,006 acres) with investment potential of approx. ₹10,500 crore and employment generation of 1 lakh jobs. A separate 2025 media report on the wider KRIS City project cited a ₹37,500 crore investment expected to generate 4.67 lakh jobs — a figure close to the 467,800-worker target in the master plan summary above. Because these numbers come from different planning stages and cover different land extents (Phase-1 only vs. the full node), readers should treat the 1-lakh-jobs figure as a Phase-1-linked estimate and the ~4.6–4.7 lakh figures as the full, 20-year master-plan target.

Planner and Development Authority

Krishnapatnam Industrial Area is developed through a joint-venture Special Purpose Vehicle: NICDIT Krishnapatnam Industrial City Development Ltd (NKICDL) was formed between NICDIT and APIIC on 07.08.2018, later reconstituted as the AP Industrial Corridors Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (APICDA). The formal draft master plan document was published by this authority: the Draft Master Plan of Krishnapatnam Industrial Node was prepared by APICDA ... published under sub-section (1) of section 9, chapter 3 of the APICDA Act and rule 16 of the Andhra Pradesh Metropolitan Region and Urban Development Authorities Rules, 2018.

At the corridor level, the overarching planning framework was set by Japan's development agency: a Comprehensive Integrated Regional Master Plan for the Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor Final Report has been prepared by JICA. For the node-specific detailed master plan and preliminary engineering, a request for quote and request for proposal was put out for consultancy services of detailed master planning and preliminary engineering for the Tumakuru and Krishnapatnam Node, and NICDC/NICDIT's project pages confirm that a consultant has been appointed for the preparation of a detailed master plan and preliminary engineering for the project. The specific consultancy firm's name was not disclosed in any of the official sources reviewed.

Where to Find the Official Plan Documents

The formally notified Draft Master Plan for the Krishnapatnam Industrial Node is published by APICDA (the project's development authority) on its own website, with maps available for inspection and a window for public objections/suggestions. Per the official notification, the Draft Master Plan is also available at the office of the ZM Nellore and ZM Tirupati and various government offices at the APICDA Head Office, Collector and District Magistrate offices in Nellore and Chittoor, and at the DTCP office in Mangalagiri.

• Draft Master Plan notification and map viewer: apicdc.in/masterdraft
• KRIS City project portal (draft master plan section): kriscity.in/draft-master-plan
• NICDC project page for Krishnapatnam Industrial Area: nicdc.in

New Cities India does not reproduce the plan document itself here; readers should consult the links above for the authoritative maps, land schedules and any current amendments.