Narendra Modi lures Andhra entrepreneurs to Gujarat

Hyderabad: After succeeding in luring Tata Motors Ltd’s Nano facility away from Andhra Pradesh when the company was pulling out of West Bengal in 2008, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is now eying investments by entrepreneurs based in the southern state.

In a hotel ballroom in Hyderabad that was packed with around 1,000 Andhra entrepreneurs on Sunday afternoon, Modi offered them a red-carpet welcome to Gujarat. His officials made a presentation on the infrastructure Gujarat offers businesses.

“If you want a flourishing business, you should be in Gujarat. If you want a flourishing life, you must be in Gujarat. If you want to be with the times, you should be in Gujarat. But if you want to be ahead of the times, you must be in Gujarat,” said Modi.

Modi’s appeal comes at a time when businesses in Andhra Pradesh are concerned over law and order and the protection of their investments in the state rocked by a campaign for the creaation of a separate Telangana state.

Modi was in Hyderabad to personally invite industrialists to participate in ‘Vibrant Gujarat 2011’, a biennial investment promotion event scheduled for January 12-13, and invest in Gujarat.

Showcasing the opportunities for investment in Gujarat, Modi said his state offers the country’s longest operational optic fiber network of over 50,000 km, one of the country’s longest coastlines of 1,600km dotted with 42 world-class ports, a 2,200km long gas grid and surplus power.