Krishna district ranks first with a development index of 61.7 followed by Guntur with 54.7 when it comes to the race for a new capital in the event of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. This was disclosed in a presentation given by School of Planning and Architecture – Vijayawada (SPAV) assistant professor Prasanth Vardhan.
He was speaking on the topic ‘New capital and its function- opportunities and threats’ as part of a day-long international seminar on ‘Corridors, city regions and cities in urban and regional development’ organised by the School of Planning and Architecture-Vijayawada in association with the Andhra Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Friday.
The professor pointed out that the Vijayawada-Guntur region qualifies in all aspects when it comes to identifying a new capital for Seemandhra and he noted that the index would go up once the proposed Eastern Corridor or the PCPIR becomes a reality.
Giving a presentation on the topic, urban and regional consultant Karlapudi Divya said that various factors at both macro and micro level need to be considered before zeroing in on a location. Macro factors such as political, centrality, economic and administrative and micro factors such as education, health, water and transport give the Vijayawada-Guntur region an edge over other locations such as Visakhapatnam and Ongole.
‘Vizag not centrally located’
Highlighting the disadvantages, Ms. Divya said while land is a problem in Vijayawada-Guntur region, water is the problem area for Guntur and centrality was key disadvantage for Visakhapatnam.
‘Political decision final’
SDR Editor and GIZ consultant S.K. Kulshrestha in his presentation pointed out that though macro and micro analysis play a major role in determining the setting up of the new capital, it was finally the political decision that is considered.
Others who spoke at the seminar include ACCI Secretary Chukkapalli R. Prasad, CMDA- Chennai Chief Planner Chithra Sampath, Anna University Department of Planning HoD Abdul Razak Mohammad, professor John Jackson from RMIT-Melbourne, SPAV Associate Professor Kanchan Gandhi, Sohail Ahmad, Debolina Banerjee, Ayon Kumar Tarafdar, D. Maqbool Ahmed, Aparna Soni, and Soumi Nag.
