'Why not move to Vizag,' Nara Lokesh asks BlackBuck CEO leaving Bengaluru's ORR

Nara Lokesh

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh on September 17 invited BlackBuck co-founder Rajesh Yabaji, who plans to leave Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road, to relocate his company to Visakhapatnam.

“Hi Rajesh, can I interest you in relocating your company to Vizag? We are rated among the top 5 cleanest cities in India, are building best-in-class infrastructure, and have been rated the safest city for women. Please send me a DM,” Lokesh wrote on X.

Also, read: BlackBuck to move out of Bengaluru’s ORR, co-founder Rajesh Yabaji blames bad roads, traffic

The post comes after Yabaji stated that he would move out of Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road. In a post on X, he said the ORR (Bellandur) has been their 'office + home' for nine years, but commuting had become “very hard to continue.”

“We have decided to move out,” Yabaji wrote. The average commute for his colleagues was more than one and a half hours each way. He added that the roads were riddled with potholes and dust, “with little intent to fix them,” and did not expect improvements in the next five years. He did not clarify whether the move would be within Bengaluru or outside the city.

This is not the first time Lokesh has encouraged businesses to consider Andhra Pradesh. In July, he invited aerospace investors to the state after the Karnataka government dropped plans to acquire land for an aerospace park near Bengaluru.

Moneycontrol had reported that, after the 1,198th day of the farmers’ protest in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the state government would drop its proposed acquisition of 1,777 acres in Devanahalli taluk for the aerospace park near Kempegowda International Airport.

Also, read: 'Why don’t you look at AP instead?': Nara Lokesh says after Karnataka drops land acquisition for Aerospace Park near Bengaluru airport