Andhra Chief Minister announces, ‘Will shift to Vizag in December’
Visakhapatnam. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday announced that he will shift to Visakhapatnam in December this year.
He made the announcement at the inauguration of Infosys’ development center at Rushikonda in the port city.
“I was expecting October, but now there is a possibility of shift to December,” he said, adding that he hoped this would give the necessary impetus to Vizag to become a tier-1 city.
Jagan Mohan Reddy said he has asked officials to find good premises for him to shift to the port city. He said the authorities searched for a suitable premises for him, his security and CMO officials.
The Chief Minister said that Vizag has the potential to become the second Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Chennai.
He said, “Unfortunately after Hyderabad was separated after partition, we do not have any tier-1 city. IT and related services and industries belonging to Tier-I cities could not be housed in Vizag, as Hyderabad was our capital. Unfortunately, Vizag remains a tier-II city. “Yet Vizag is the largest city in Andhra Pradesh and has the potential to become a Tier-I city.”
Jagan Mohan Reddy informed that Vizag is an educational hub with eight universities, four medical colleges, 14 engineering colleges and 12 degree colleges. The city is producing 12,000 to 15,000 engineers every year, he said.
The Chief Minister said that Vizag also has prestigious institutions like IIM and National Law University. There are also many public sector companies in the city. About 20 thousand naval personnel and their families live here. There is strong port based infrastructure with two ports while the third port is coming up at Srikakulam, not far from the city. An international airport is also under construction and is expected to be ready in the next two years.
It is noteworthy that last week, the state government constituted a committee of officials to identify suitable transit accommodation, this included a camp office for the Chief Minister and residences for senior officials.
It was said that the Chief Minister would visit Visakhapatnam on regular basis to hold review meetings on the development of North Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
During the cabinet meeting held last month, the Chief Minister had announced that the state administration would be shifted to Visakhapatnam on Dussehra.
Addressing the Global Investors Summit in Vizag in March, Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced that Visakhapatnam would be the executive capital of the state in the coming days.
On December 17, 2019, Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced in the state assembly that three state capitals would be developed, reversing the previous TDP government’s decision to develop Amaravati as the state capital.
The YSRCP government proposed to make Visakhapatnam the administrative capital, Kurnool the judicial capital and Amaravati the legislative capital.
But, the process was delayed due to protests by farmers of Amravati over shifting of the capital and a High Court order directing the government to develop Amravati as the state capital. (IANS)
