The centre has approved establishment of a mega leather cluster at Kota Mandal in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The government has also announced Rs 125 crore assistance for the cluster.

“It gives me immense pleasure to inform you that proposal for establishment of mega leather cluster at Kota Mandal has been approved with a central government assistance of Rs 125 crore,” union commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a letter to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandra Babu Naidu.

Sitharaman requested the chief minister to complete due process related to award of contract etc., so that the centre could release the funds to start the project as soon as possible.

The project sanctioned under Indian Leather Development programme is expected to leverage an investment of at least Rs 500 crore in the first phase itself.

The cluster would create state-of-the-art infrastructure for labour intensive units and is expected to generate employment for 20,000 people.