The Andhra Pradesh government has pitched for locating the new capital between Vijayawada and Guntur.
The government’s viewpoint was conveyed on Tuesday to K. Sivaramakrishnan, who is heading the committee constituted by the Union Government to identify a suitable place for the new capital. Andhra Pradesh Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana along with State Government’s Special Representative in Delhi, K. Ram Mohan Rao held discussions on the issues relating to the new capital with Mr. Sivaramakrishnan.
Later talking to reporters in Delhi, the Minister said while the committee was considering various options, the State government’s preference for locating the capital between Vijayawada and Guntur was communicated. They informed Mr. Sivaramakrishnan about the distinct advantages enjoyed by Vijayawada-Guntur region in terms of availability of abundant water and road, rail and air connectivity.
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They also reportedly pointed out that it was centrally situated when compared to other cities like Visakhapatnam in north coastal Andhra Pradesh or Chittoor-Kurnool region in Rayalaseema. Another factor that went in its favour was the availability of over 10,000 acres of forest land in Krishna district, they told Mr. Sivaramakrishnan.
Sources said that acquiring forest land should not pose any problem since the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 had mentioned that degraded forest land would be de-notified for creation of new capital. Normally, whenever forest land is diverted an equal extent of non-forest land would have to be given for raising compensatory afforestation and NPV (net present value) would have to be paid—around Rs.4.5 lakh per hectare of scrub forests and Rs. 9 lakh per hectare of good forest. However, it was not known yet known if this rule would apply in case forest land was acquired for the new capital.
Mr. Narayana and Mr. Rao were also believed to have told Mr. Sivaramakrishnan that lands over an extent of 20,000 acres were needed for building the capital when he asked if 3,000-4,000 acres was sufficient. The expenditure for creation of the new capital would be in the region of Rs.1.40 lakh crore.
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The sources said the committee has submitted a draft approach paper to the Union Home Ministry listing out various options for creation of the new capital. The Home Ministry in turn would send it to the State Government for its perusal and suggestions.
It is learnt that Mr. Sivaramakrishnan would be making a presentation to Andhra Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on July 26. Based on the suggestions made by the State government, the committee is expected to submit its final report by August 15 after touring Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Kurnool and Prakasam districts, the sources added.