Setting its focus on unexplored mining areas, the has decided to close down the existing state highway for a distance of about 4 km nearChimakurthyinPrakasamdistrict. This will facilitate the government to create an exclusive mining zone.
The state government is planning to lease out the land, which is expected to hold vast reserves of blackgalaxy granite, to private developers.
The land on which the state highway passes through on the outskirts of Chimakurthy is the only stretch that has been left unexplored in the region. Thousands of acres of land in the villages of Rajupalem, Lakshmipuram and Budavada, close to Chimakurthy have already been excavated since the discovery of galaxy granite in the region. Sources said reserves in areas on both the sides of highway are almost empty and the local granite Industry is finding it difficult to extract quality stone.
However, studies by theAndhra PradeshMineral Development Corporation (APMDC) has found that about 250 to 400 acres of land underneath the state highway holds huge granite reserves. Although the previous TDP government wanted to lease out the area to private developers, it backtracked following protests from locals against plans to close off the roads.
Then roads and buildings minister and granite industrialist Sidda Raghava Rao took the initiative to create a bypass road to Chimakurthy. But with the construction of the bypass road getting delayed, plans to take over the state highway land did not materialise.