Proposal to shift Andhra capital from Amaravati to Mangalagiri under consideration
On October 23, 2015, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the new capital at Uddandarayuni Palem village amid huge hype.
Four years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stone for the construction of Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSR Congress party is contemplating the relocation of the capital to Mangalagiri.
A six-member experts committee, headed by retired IAS officer G Nageshwar Rao, constituted on September 13, will decide the fate of Amaravati within six weeks. The committee had its first meeting on Thursday to draft a comprehensive plan for the development of the capital.
“This committee will suggest an ideal location for the capital, be it Amaravati or somewhere else, where development is possible and convenient to everyone. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will take the final call after the expert committee submits its report,” minister for municipal administration, Botsa Satyanarayana said.
It was on October 23, 2015, that the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the new capital at Uddandarayuni Palem village amid huge hype. What now lies there is an interim secretariat, a state assembly complex at Velagapudi, an interim high court at Nelapadu, partly completed residential quarters for the MLAs, ministers, IAS and IPS officers, government employees and judges and an under-construction seed access road and connecting road network.
A municipal official familiar with the development said there is a possibility of the core capital being moved towards Mangalagiri, which is located on the national highway, closer to both Vijayawada and Guntur.
YSR Congress party MLA from Mangalagiri, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who is strongly lobbying for the relocation of administrative capital to Mangalagiri, said there had been an increasing support within the party for the relocation proposal.
“In fact, Mangalagiri is also a part of the capital region of Amaravati. We are only asking for the development of the capital towards the highway, rather than towards Thulluru on the western side. We are asking the experts committee to look into this suggestion,” Reddy said.
He said the Mangalagiri region has a huge chunk of government land besides the 10,000 acres of forest land which could be de-notified for the capital. “These are upland areas and have no threat of any waterlogging, unlike the present location of Amaravati which is located on floodplains on the banks of Krishna river,” he said.
“The previous government has not constructed any permanent buildings for the capital. So, instead of taking up construction in the present location, where cost of construction will be too high due to loose soil, the government can do the same in Mangalagiri, which has hard soil,” Reddy said.
Moreover, since Mangalagiri is located on Chennai-Kolkata national highway (NH-16), it has road, rail and air connectivity, which are essential for any capital city. “Since it is closer to both Vijayawada and Guntur, it is also convenient to the common people as well as government employees,” the MLA said.
Some senior officials have also requested the government to consider shifting of the present secretariat from Amaravati to the existing administrative buildings of Nagarjuna University, which is closer to Mangalagiri, for easy accessibility.
“The secretariat at Velagapudi is at least 20-22 km from the highway. Every day, the officials and Secretariat staff have to travel for such a long distance to reach their offices,” a secretariat employee said on the condition of anonymity.
The expert committee is expected to submit its report to the government in the second week of December and once a decision is taken, the AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) will prepare a revised master plan for the new capital region.
Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the YSRC government had killed a golden goose like Amaravati. This was happening only because the initiative to make Amaravati a world-class capital was taken by him, Naidu added.
