Declaring Amaravati as unfit for being the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a US-based global consulting firm, on Friday recommended that the entire state administration be shifted from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
The company submitted its report to chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at the Secretariat in the evening. A six-member expert committee, headed by retired IAS officer G N Rao, in its report submitted on December 21, also made a similar recommendation.
The government last week appointed a 16-member committee which would go through both the GN Rao panel report and the BCG report, before making its own recommendations on the capital city for the state by January 20.
Speaking to reporters after the BCG submitted its report, planning department secretary G S Vijay Kumar said the consultancy firm recommended that the state secretariat, Raj Bhavan and the chief minister’s office be located in Visakhapatnam.
“The assembly can be either in Vijayawada or Amaravati and the high court can be shifted to Kurnool,” he said.
He said the BCG had suggested decentralised development of all regions with a balanced and inclusive growth strategy. It has divided the 13 districts in the state into six regions, depending on the natural resources and growth potential, taking into consideration economy, industry, agriculture, services, infrastructure, and social infrastructure aspects.
{{/usCountry}}He said the BCG had suggested decentralised development of all regions with a balanced and inclusive growth strategy. It has divided the 13 districts in the state into six regions, depending on the natural resources and growth potential, taking into consideration economy, industry, agriculture, services, infrastructure, and social infrastructure aspects.
{{/usCountry}}The BCG analysed the potential of Amaravati and said the success ratio for economic development was very low in the greenfield capital city. “It will take more than 40 years for the development if Rs 1 lakh crore is spent for Amaravati construction. About Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore would be spent on only debt services for the capital city construction,” the report said.
The BCG also felt that Amaravati was not suitable for construction of a capital city as the five kilometre range from the Krishna river front was prone to flooding and inundation. “Instead, it can be developed as an education hub, food and fisheries hub and hi-tech organic agriculture hub. Focussed effort is needed on these clusters to ensure employment creation and faster development,” the report said.