The region around the city has fertile soil and irrigation is supported by the river Krishna and its canals. Major crops include sugarcane, rice and mango. Vijayawada is famous for automobile body building, garment, iron and hardware small scale industries. The Jawahar Lal Nehru Auto Nagar Industrial Estate in Vijayawada is one of the largest hubs of automobile industry of Asia.There are about 1500 automobile accessory units in the city and near about 100,000 workers are employed in these industries. Apart from workers of the city, people from other parts of the state come to work in the industrial estate. The main markets are in the old city (popularly known as One Town) and near Besant Road. It is estimated that nearly INR 10 crores of garment business takes place in the Vastralatha building alone in One Town daily. Garments are mainly sold in Besant Road and Governor Pet, but most upmarket stores have shifted their shops to Bandar Road. The city has many wholesale businesses. They include garments, iron market, pulses, cereals, and other edible products, fancy markets, fertilizers, mango exports, pharmacy and metal.
The total urban market size of Vijayawada for 2008 was estimated at Rs 5526 crores.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayawada - cite_note-11
The industrial estate in Kondapalli, an industrial suburb, is spread over 450 acres (1.8 km) and is base to more than 800 industries.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayawada - cite_note-12 In addition a 1800MW Vijayawada thermal power project (VTPS) and 368.144 MW gas-based LANCO power plant which is under expansion to 768.144 MW are located here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayawada - cite_note-13 In March 2011 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) announced that it signed an agreement with APGENCO for setting up a 182 MW plant at Vijayawada as a technology demonstration project.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayawada - cite_note-14 Kondapalli suburb also houses Andhra Pradesh Heavy Machinery
