Venkaiah drops hints about AP Capital

HYDERABAD: Days after he had announced that the Centre would try to develop Vijayawada and Guntur as twin cities with metro rail connectivity, Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu further dropped hints that the new capital of residuary state of Andhra Pradesh would be located between these two cities.

When reporters wanted to know his priority in locating the new capital, he said here on Saturday, 'How can I decide the new capital of Seemandhra? It would be decided by the CM-designate of residual AP, N Chandrababu Naidu'.

Soon after this, Venkaiah Naidu disclosed that he had preliminary discussions with the CM-designate of Seemandhra over the place where new capital should be located. But, he would not divulge the details of their discussions.

Indirectly referring to the place, chosen by TDP chief Naidu for his swearing-in as the CM of truncated AP, Venkaiah Naidu said already enough hints had been dropped with regard to the place where new capital would be located.

He further said, 'I feel that the new capital should not be as big as Hyderabad where all the development is concentrated at one place. At the same time, the new capital should not be located at a nondescript place where there is no basic infrastructure'.

Hence, he advocated for setting up the new capital of Seemandhra at a 'mediumsized' city where basic infrastructure is available. 'If the capital is confined only to the administrative buildings, then nobody will show interest to work there.

Normally, in every capital, basic infrastructure facilities like schools for the education of the children of employees, hospitals for the medical needs of them and hotels for visitors and entertainment facilities for guests should be set up.

That is why I am advocating for building the capital city in a moderate manner,' said Venkaiah Naidu.

As the Vijayawada-Guntur stretch fits the bill for the definition given by the Union Urban Development Minister for the new capital of Seemandhra which is not so big when compared to port city Visakhapatnam and which is equally not so little as Ongole or Tirupati, analysts say that by mentioning the word 'medium-sized city' Venkaiah had more or less conformed that Vijayawada- Guntur stretch would be the new capital of truncated AP.

Meanwhile, recalling that an expert committee, set up by the Union Government, is already examining the feasibility of various cities to locate the capital, the Union Minister said a final decision with regard to setting up capital of truncated AP would be taken by the State government after submission of the report to the Centre by the expert panel.

'Fortunately, being the Union urban development minister, I have also some say in locating the new capital' Venkaiah, who hails from the Seemandhra region, signed off.