Vizag in race for AP capital, agitation threat if the city is not made capital

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Feb 23, 2014: With the bifurcation of the state a reality, various local groups are pitching for Vizag to be made the capital of successor state. Vizag Development Council (VDC) has begun the battle to compete with other cities from Seemandhra to project the City of Destiny as a perfect destination to be christened as capital city of the new state.

Stressing that Vizag, with cosmopolitan culture that can attract global investors, having infrastructure and close to the South East Asia’s growth corridor, will be the perfect choice, VDC members also warned of agitation if the city is not made the capital of residuary state.

“If we don’t wake up now, we will further be looted. If Vizag is not made capital, it will be biggest blunder that goes down in the history of the state which is going to be newly formed. Some politicians are doing cheap and dirty politics and are lobbying for other cities for capital. Vizag having good infrastructure will be the growth engine of the new state. Vizag had always been 10 years ahead of any other city in this region. It’s not for the sake of Vizag we are demanding it be made the capital but for the bright future of the newly formed state,” said VDC, president P Vishnu Kumar Raju.

He also requested the BJP to include in their election manifesto to extend the special status to the successor state from 5 to years and tax benefits to 15 years for the development of the new state.

VDC, vice president, O Naresh Kumar lamented that - more than Rs 1,000 crs worth land was sold and the amounts were diverted to capital account. “Vizag lost Rs.1200 Crore worth of land and Vuda lost another Rs.340 Crores extra in the form of taxes and expenses and excess remittances to state’s exchequer.  Vuda has not been getting any state funds for the last 10 years. We demand that money be sent back.  If we can get this money back we can finish all our master plan roads and also the (ORR) outer ring road which costs only Rs 500 Crores. All pending tourism projects under Vuda can be done in less than 2 years including ORR,” he said.

Naresh further said that APEPDCL has the the lowest allocation in the state and has lowest loss of  6.9pc among all four discomms which are separate companies. Other discomms have more than double than EPDCL losses, consumers are asking as to why  they should  pay for the thefts and  needless losses  in other 3 discomms and the state can save very huge amounts by reducing losses in other discomms  to the APEPDCL levels.

“We need more allocation of power for APEPDCL as Visakhapatnam is having highest investments among all tier2 cities in India after Ahmedabad. Kindly sanction the additional quota at the earliest to ensure employment and progress. There are many defence establishments including Eastern Naval Command which is expanding at a rapid pace needing separate allocation urgently to prevent power shortage,” he said and added that defence establishments should make alternative arrangements for power and all the EPDCL power should be used for civilians.

K Narayan Rao of Vizagapatnam Chamber of Commerce has said that many countries have evinced interest in investing in Vizag in several sectors. He added that embassies from New Zealand, US, Switzerland had done ground surveys recently in this regard.

 CII Vizag chapter chairman, G Sambasiva Rao, said the government should explore the tourism potential of the region.

VDC lists merits of Vizag:

• The largest city in the new state

• Only city with high national and international connectivity 24/7

• Ability to attract investments due to good air connectivity and excellent hotel industry and peaceful nature of this area.

• Excellent ports - 2 in Vizag,  2 in Kakinada. New minor ports coming up.

• Railway division is 4th largest division out of 70divisions. Has largest land bank for setting up a railway zone.

• Excellent sea coast for beach tourism. Can emerge as a tourist hub.

• New health city coming up in 100 acres with multispeciality hospitals.

• New pharma and Textile parks in operation ready to take off.

• New IT SEZs. Currently at Rs 1500crores IT export. But can become highest growth zone with good policies and new incubation spaces.

• New petrochemical corridor coming up.

• Eastrern Naval Command (ENC) and many defence and PSU units provide security and stability.

• Very picturesque location with mountains, beaches and forests, surrounding city with good green cover.

• Peaceful city with very low crime rate.

• Already recognised as number one tier two city in India attracting heavy investments.

• APEPDCL  is India’s number one discomm with lowest losses and best performance, can provide quality power at lowest rate to all industries and agriculture.

• Has largest gas find nearby at Kakinda. This can lead to more power and more industrialisation from international investors.

* Scope for heavy investments in tourism, sports and manufacturing sector.