As the historic day beckons when the foundation stone for the new Capital Amaravati would be laid on October 22, District Collector Kantilal Dande looks back with a sense of satisfaction, pride and also relief.
From helping the State Government in identifying the location of the new Capital, to marshalling his resources to pool in over 33,000 acres of land in the three mandals of Thullur, Tadepalli and Mangalagiri and now, racing against time to complete the massive arrangements for the foundation stone ceremony on October 22, Mr. Dande is in the thick of action.
“The new Capital is the pride of Guntur and also the pride of Andhra Pradesh. It is my dream to see the river front Capital emerges as a hub of educational, employment, recreation and tourism hub. With top class educational institutions and industries set to launch production, the region will emerge as a great city,” Mr. Dande told The Hindu .
Handpicked by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for realising his dream of building a world class Capital, Mr. Dande admitted that the task of convincing farmers to become partners in the land pooling scheme had not been an easy one, and said that it was possible due to accommodative nature of the CM.
“The CM is a technocrat with a futuristic vision. He was extremely accommodative to the concerns raised by the farmers and that helped us in winning the hearts of the farmers. The land owners were also thankful as they had the seen the appreciation in land values,” Mr. Dande said.
