The capital of Andhra State after its separation from Composite Madras State in 1953 was built in 40 days. The land required for the purpose was acquired in a single day and tents were put up in a week.
The planning and dedication of officers and staff helped the administration secure all records intact and shift them to Kurnool. Kurnool was a sleepy town when the Madras Assembly voted it to be the next capital of Andhra State. Despite the caution by C. Rajagopalachari to Tamil MLAs not to join the voting, five MLAs had voted in support of Kurnool. The most difficult task was accomplished by a team of dedicated officials headed by then Special Collector C. Narasimham, Collector P.V. Madhava Rao, SP B. Kalyan Rao, Chief Engineer Frederic and Superintending Engineer Coil Pillai, while Chief Secretary O. Pulla Reddy monitored the shifting operations from Madras. After deliberations, the officials decided to vacate all district offices suitable for State offices in three to five days and shift them to Nandyal and Banaganapalli. The Collector’s office and District Board (Zilla Parishad) were found suitable for secretariat, District Court for Assembly, SP Office for the office of Inspector General of Police, Secondary Grade School hostel for Legislators residence and executive engineer’s office for Raj Bhavan. For staff quarters, the team decided to acquire land on the city outskirts, which was named as ABC camps later. Within a day, the Special Collector’s team conducted a meeting with the land owners and decided a compensation of Rs 150 per acre for the crop loss. The team put up 600 military tents in the layout after constructing dust-free roads, water lines and toilets. The government placed an order for the tents with the Military stores and sourced them from Pune. A team of 200 Malabar workers were deployed to erect tents. The government also made available Rs 50 lakh from the treasury for meeting the emergency expenditure and carrying out repairs to the Old Buildings.
The government took over Tungabhadra Industries Rest House and one retiring room at the railway station to accommodate the VIPS. A special train was run from Chennai for shifting the furniture, records and another to bring people for the inaugural function on October 2.
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