A campaign is being unleashed by vested interests from south coastal Andhra Pradesh to prevent Visakhapatnam from becoming the new capital of the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. The forces have been propagating that Vizag is in a corner of Seemandhra, naxalism would increase and Rayalaseema and south coastal Andhra would not develop if Vizag becomes the capital, according to Visakha Citizens’ Forum president S.S. Shiva Sankar.
At a programme organised to launch a poster ‘Wake up Vizag’ in support of the demand to make Vizag as capital, at the VJF Press Club here on Friday, he said the propaganda was only aimed at depriving Visakhapatnam of its rightful place. Visakhapatnam located midway between Chennai and Howrah and the third largest city on the east coast of India, was a ‘readymade capital’ while all other cities and towns in Seemandhra would have to start from scratch.
FacilitiesMr. Shiva Sankar said that only Vizag had all the facilities that were required to establish the capital.
The only city in combined Andhra Pradesh apart from Hyderabad to have ‘Greater City’ status was Vizag and it was a cosmopolitan city with a vast majority of the people from different parts of the country. It has rail, road, air and seaport providing connectivity not only to different parts of the country but also other parts of the globe.
The only city in Seemandhra to have an international airport with direct flights to Singapore and Dubai was Vizag and the existing infrastructure facilities would not cause undue financial burden on creation of the new capital apart from bringing down the time required for building the new capital.
There was no truth in the theory that the capital should not be located in a corner of the State.
The capital of India was not in the centre of the country and so were the capitals of many states.
There would be no law and order problem in the new capital as Visakhapatnam was known for peace and the city has immense potential for attracting new investments, he pointed out.
Mr. Shiva Sankar said that ‘Wake up Vizag’ campaign was being launched from Friday to create awareness among the people of the city and north Andhra on the need to make Vizag as capital to foster development of north Andhra as also the rest of Seemandhra.
Rail zonePraja Spandana president C.S. Rao took strong exception to the statement of Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy that Kurnool would be made the headquarters of the new railway zone in Seemandhra. The Minister had promised in the past that Visakhapatnam was the most suitable to establish the new railway zone.
The city has all the required infrastructure and lot of lands belonging to the railways to set up new facilities.
