Union Cabinet Approves Orvakal as one of 12 New Industrial Smart Cities under NICDP

What was decided

In a landmark decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved 12 new project proposals under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP) with an estimated investment of Rs. 28,602 crore. Spanning across 10 states and strategically planned along 6 major corridors, the approved industrial areas include Orvakal and Kopparthy in Andhra Pradesh, alongside nodes in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Rajasthan.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed the approval after the Cabinet meeting, and on the same day Union Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu announced the Andhra Pradesh-specific details in New Delhi. He said industrial hubs were coming up in Kopparthi in Kadapa district and Orvakal in Kurnool district, with 25,969 acres allotted to the Kopparthi hub for 54,000 jobs, while in Orvakal, 2,621 acres would be allotted and Rs 2,726 crore spent to provide employment to 45,000 people. The announcement coincided with a state cabinet meeting the same day, and the Chief Minister thanked the Prime Minister for granting two industrial nodes to Andhra Pradesh.

Operative details for the Orvakal node

The Orvakal node in Kurnool district, spanning 2,621 acres, is being developed under the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor. According to NICDC's own project page, Orvakal has an investment potential of ₹12,000 crore and a project cost of ₹2,786 crore, and it aims to generate 45,071 jobs; the node also serves as a link between the Chennai-Bangalore and Vishakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridors.

On connectivity, the site has access to NH40, NH44 and the Kurnool Bypass, ensuring robust road connectivity, and it sits 12 km from Kurnool Airport, with Krishnapatnam Port about 320 km east. Rail links were noted earlier in NICDC's corridor documentation: a broad-gauge railway line connecting Hyderabad to Bengaluru via Anantapur runs mostly alongside NH 44 in a north-south direction, and another line connecting Hubbali-Dharwad in Karnataka to Vijayawada runs east-west close to the southern portion of the site.

The wider Orvakal footprint referenced in NICDC corridor material is larger than the 2,621-acre node approved by the Cabinet: the proposed Mega Industrial Hub at Orvakal village in Kurnool district measures approximately 4,742 acres spread across three distinct land parcels located off NH 40 (an earlier 2022 NICDC note had put the broader hub concept at roughly 9,800 acres across 11 villages before the 2,621-acre CCEA-approved node was finalised). The Cabinet's 2,621-acre figure is the specific parcel formally cleared under the NICDP decision.

Why Rayalaseema and Andhra Pradesh's Reorganisation Act

The approval is tied to commitments under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. In the July 2024 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said essential infrastructure such as water, power, railways and roads in the Kopparthy node on the Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor and the Orvakal node on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor would get a special boost under the Act, for promoting industrial development. The August 2024 CCEA clearance operationalised that commitment for Orvakal, with officials framing it as a boost for the state's backward Rayalaseema region.

National context: the 12-city package

The 12 approved industrial smart cities are located in Khurpia (Uttarakhand), Rajpura-Patiala (Punjab), Dighi (Maharashtra), Palakkad (Kerala), Agra and Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Gaya (Bihar), Zaheerabad (Telangana), Orvakal and Kopparthy (Andhra Pradesh), and Jodhpur-Pali (Rajasthan). Under NICDP, these industrial nodes are meant to function more like industrial cities, where residential and commercial setups co-exist, built on 'plug-n-play' and 'walk-to-work' concepts and multi-modal connectivity infrastructure aligned with the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

At the national level, NICDP is expected to create substantial employment, with an estimated 1 million direct jobs and up to 3 million indirect jobs, and beyond these new approvals, the programme had already completed four projects, with another four under implementation at the time.

Status since approval (as of July 2026)

The 28 August 2024 CCEA decision was an approval-in-principle for the node and its funding envelope, not a completed city. Subsequent implementation steps reported in the market include state-level land handling and private allotments. The Andhra Pradesh government has transferred land to the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Corridors Infrastructure Development Corporation (APICIDC) for the roughly 2,595-acre Orvakal Industrial Node, with the central government investing approximately ₹2,500 crore in infrastructure and a related ₹1,800 crore Orvakal Mobility Valley EV park also being developed nearby. Separately, the state government has allotted 100 acres at Orvakal to Virupaksha Organics for a new pharmaceuticals/specialty chemicals manufacturing facility, an example of on-ground allotment activity following the Cabinet clearance.

Investor-tracking listings show the project cost recorded around USD 350.31 million with a notice-to-proceed window of 30 October 2025 to 30 October 2028 for the central-government-backed component, indicating implementation is still in its early-to-mid stage as of mid-2026. No separate RERA registration or completed master-plan notification for Orvakal was found in available sources; readers should treat any land-use zoning splits or phase-wise completion dates as unconfirmed until an official notified master plan is published.