It was a dog-eat-dog situation when Raipur was conceived as the capital city for Chhattisgarh over a decade ago. From accommodation to roads to living spaces, denizens virtually competed for everything possible to survive. With Andhra Pradesh zeroing in on a capital city in a month, it can possibly learn a lesson or two to avoid a possible disaster.
Just to have a hint of what it was, the then Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh lived in collector’s bungalow, DGP stayed in SP’s house and IG’s house was forcefully vacated to accommodate the chief secretary according to H.P. Chandra, a resident of Raipur who was witness to the developments. This apart, it was also a tough situation for one lakh government officials and four lakh others who, according to him, had migrated from Madhya Pradesh.
“The demand for living space was acute. A single room priced at Rs. 200 in a small-time hotel was suddenly hiked to Rs.1,000. Rentals witnessed threefold hike. There was scarcity of water for drinking and other daily needs. In short, it was utter chaos with vegetable prices and other groceries costing a bomb,” said Mr. Chandra who was transferred from Delhi and shared a room with five others.
Several government officials had to be accommodated in the facilities created for lower sections of the society according to local sources.
Now that the AP government is likely to decide the capital city in a month, it is not too late for the development of necessary social and physical infrastructure around it, according to experts. Going by the indications of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the capital is most likely to be located in the Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and Mangalagiri (VGTM) region and Vijayawada is the natural choice to act as a base to kick off growth in the region.
“Unfortunately, Vijayawada, in the present form, will be the wrong choice. People out here are already suffering due to narrow roads, poor sanitation and already rising rentals and land prices. The realty frauds are also on the rise. Just one rain, the whole drainage is on the roads as there was no maintenance due to irregular salaries in Vijayawada Municipal Corporation,” said a government official under conditions of anonymity.
However, the Krishna district collector M. Raghunandan Rao is sanguine and said creation of additional infrastructure was not necessary now. Land prices are reportedly up over 50 times in some places.
