Scaling New Heights. Manoj Sharma

      We would like to express our gratitude to N. Chandrababu Naidu, Honorable Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh; and Nirmala Sitharaman, Honorable Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, for their leadership in the preparation of this report.

      We sincerely acknowledge the valuable direction given by Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India; S.P. Tucker, Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh; and Amitabh Kant, former Secretary, DIPP. We thank P.V. Ramesh, Principal Secretary, Finance, for his significant support. Kalpana Awasthi, Joint Secretary, DIPP; Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA); Shatrughna Singh, former Additional Secretary, DIPP; and Nilaya Mitash, former Joint Secretary, DEA, provided continuous guidance and support during all stages of the report’s preparation.

      The work has involved intensive consultations with various entities within the state government of Andhra Pradesh, including the Office of the Chief Minister and the Departments of Industries and Commerce; Transport, Roads, and Buildings; Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD); and Infrastructure and Investment; and the Directorate of State Ports.

      We thankfully acknowledge the valuable contributions and inputs of Satish Chandra, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister; B. Sam Bob, Special Chief Secretary to Government, Transport, Roads and Buildings Department; Ajay Jain, Secretary, Energy, Infrastructure, and Investment Department; P. Krishnaiah, Executive Chairman, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC); Aramane Giridhar, former Principal Secretary, MA&UD; D. Sambasiva Rao, former Principal Secretary, MA&UD; and J.S.V. Prasad, former Principal Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce. We would like to convey special thanks to Shamsher Singh Rawat, Secretary; and Kartikeya Misra, Director, both of the Department of Industries and Commerce, for their dedicated cooperation and crucial support at various stages of this project.

      Several brainstorming sessions with stakeholders, including think tanks, were undertaken. Rajat Kumar, former Commissioner of Industries, Andhra Pradesh; Talleen Kumar, former Joint Secretary, DIPP; and Gulzar Natarajan, former Vice-Chair and Managing Director, Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh played a valuable role in these meetings.

      We would like to convey our gratitude to Sunita Yadav, Director, DIPP; Ajay S. Singh, Director, DEA; B. Sreedhar, Vice-Chair and Managing Director, APIIC; Pravin Kumar, Commissioner, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation; K. Vijayanand, Chairman and Managing Director, Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh; and Mr Jagannadha Rao, Chief Engineer, Andhra Pradesh Road Development Corporation, for the smooth facilitation they have provided at every juncture.

      The Study Team

      The book was prepared under the guidance of Hun Kim, Director General, South Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB); and M. Teresa Kho, Country Director, India Resident Mission, ADB. Sabyasachi Mitra, Rana Hasan, Manoj Sharma, and Hoe Yun Jeong, as team leaders, conceptualized the framework for the Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor and led the study. The team members were Ana Theresa Cervantes, Bebedel Fabe, Kavita Iyengar, Lani Garnace, and Nidhi Kapoor, supported by the following consultants: Anthony Baluga, Leilanie Basilio, Soumya Chattopadhyay, Edith Creus, Kevin Donahue, Jolly La Rosa, Ivan Magadia, Satish Reddy, Noel Reyes, and Atul Sanganeria.

      PricewaterhouseCoopers India was represented by Manish Agarwal, Manish Sharma, Mohammad Saif Athar, Vikash Sharda, Ramya Arigay, R. Lakshminarainan, Vaishakhi Shah, Shubhojeet Chakravarty, Probal Ghosh, Sujay Shetty and Tushar Sharma. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India called on the services of Arindam Guha, Anindya Mallick, and Shubham Gupta. L&T Infrastructure Engineering also provided valuable technical support.

      Several experts also contributed: John Arnold; B.R. Balachandran; Pritam Banerjee (DHL); A. Kishore Rao, and Jayanta Roy of Deloitte Consulting. The team benefited from valuable inputs from Meenu Tewari, Arpita Mukherjee, Ashok Gulati, and Rajat Kathuria at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi; Partha Mukhopadhyay at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; Kunal Sen at the University of Manchester; N. Sridharan at the School of Planning and Architecture, Vijaywada; and Rajeev Singh, Kanupriya Gupta, and Abhijit Sen Gupta at the India Resident Mission, ADB.