The Sivaramakrishnan Committee came up with solid arguments in favour of the three distinct regions reportedly identified by it as “possible capital zones,” giving them titles of Vizag sub-region, the Rayalaseema Arc and the Kalahasti Spine.
The first one, Visakhapatnam Zone comprising the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority, spread over 5,573 square km as well as Srikakulam to the north and Kakinada to the south is regarded by the committee as a centre of heavy industry, manufacturing, ports and technical institutions of various kinds. The KG basin natural gas with a possible terminal in Kakinada had the potential to transform this particular zone.
The designation of the Vizag-Chennai corridor as a part of the longer Kolkata-Chennai corridor provided a major opportunity for the development of this zone, it observed. For the development of this zone, the committee recommended location of government offices dealing with industry, manufacture, ports, shipping, petrochemical technical education.
The Rayalaseema Arc, identified by the committee as the second zone for consideration as capital, stretches from Kurnool to Chittoor via Anantapur, Dharmavaram, Hindupur and Tirupati. The panel argues that Kurnool and Anantapur have been in existence for a long time with the former being the capital of Andhra when it was initially carved out of the Composite Madras State.
The committee cited the Hyderabad- Kurnool- Anantapur- Bangalore highway forming part of golden quadrilateral system as an advantage. It found Kurnool-Anantapur and Bangalore-Chennai via Chittoor as extremely important area for future development. In the near future, there could be Mumbai-Bangalore corridor which can be linked to Anantapur via Lepakshi.
The Rayalaseema Arc had the potential of emerging as a major component of a network of high capacity transport corridor in the South, it observed.
The third zone, Kalahasti Spine, identified by the committee, relies more on the Kalahasti- Nadikudi 300 km railway line proposed in the list of most important works in the Railway budget of 2014-15. This intersects Vinukonda on the Bangalore- Guntur railway line and eventually terminates at Nadikudi near the Andhra – Telangana border. The committee says the Kalahasti Spine can effectively serve as a North- South transport corridor which can be regarded as parallel opportunity to the Vizag-Chennai corridor.
The Vijayawada-Guntur region, the committee felt, was both “unfeasible and undesirable”. It will significantly add to the “honey pot” character similar to Hyderabad. which in turn will significantly detract from the potential and growth prospects of the other centres in Andhra.
The committee observed that Guntur and Krishna had the second highest population in the State. Of this work force, 65 per cent in Guntur and 56 per cent in Krishna were cultivators and agriculture labourers. Any attempt to convert agriculture land into non- agriculture use will seriously displace the work force rendering them unemployed, loss of valuable agriculture land, disappearance of small holdings and farmers and benefit only land speculation and real estate operators at the expense of citizens.
