No other city in Seemandhra can boast of the infrastructure facilities and air, rail and sea connectivity like Visakhapatnam and making it the capital can also spur development of other cities and towns as well, according to the representatives of various organisations.
‘False propaganda’At a media conference here on Monday, they rubbished the ‘false propaganda’ being carried out by ‘vested interests’ in south coastal Andhra Pradesh that Visakhapatnam does not have enough land or that establishment of the capital could pose security threat to the Defence establishments.
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Huge chunks of land are available towards Payakaraopeta and also towards Vizianagaram.
The Revenue Department has already identified 18,000 acres in Anakapalle and Narsipatnam zone.
Around 5,000 acres of Wakf land was under illegal occupation and it could be taken back for provision of facilities for the new capital. The APIIC had acquired around 10,000 acres of land for several big projects, which had not taken off and it could be taken back and around 9,000 acres of land allotted to PCPIR could be taken back and used for providing facilities for the new capital, as the people of the region were opposed to the setting up of the PCPIR.
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Instead of PCPIR, LNG terminal should be established at all seaports of Seemandhra for natural gas, which was eco-friendly.
Uttarandhra Rakshana Vedika (URV) president S.S. Shiva Sankar said that location of capital in Visakhapatnam would reduce the financial burden on the government as the required infrastructure was already available.
On the threat to defence establishments, he felt that if that was the case, Mumbai could not have become the capital of Maharashtra.
B. Venkat, IT professional from the city, K. Narasinga Rao of KNR Foundation, D.V.T. Ganesh of URV and B. Vamsi and Sri Harsha, representing Vizag Citizens Forum were present.