Hunt on for capital of Andhra Pradesh

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While Hyderabad will remain the common capital for both states after bifurcation for 10 years, discussions have started regarding the location of the new capital for the residuary state of AP.
The Congress Working Committee on Tuesday recommended to the Centre to retain Hyderabad as the common capital for 10 years and build a new capital for the residuary state with Central funds in the meantime.
Though it will not require a decade to build a new capital, political parties view this move as an attempt not only to pacify ruling party leaders from the two regions but to provide a sense of security to lakhs of people who have migrated to Hyderabad in search of livelihood.
Visakhapatnam, which had attained cosmopolitan status much before Hyderabad, will be one of the options. It already has an airport, two major ports and the IT sector too prefers it. However, it is almost at the eastern corner of the state. Kakinada (rural) legislator K. Kanna Babu said, “We oppose division. But if it is inevitable, developing a new capital and shifting the administration should be done as quickly as possible.We will be doing injustice to the people of the region by delaying growth which is already stunted due to excessive focus on Hyderabad.”
A senior minister from coastal district says, “The location of the new capital will also be decided by the Centre. It may choose the surroundings of Vijayawada or Guntur as it is centrally located. The infrastructure is also in place compared to other places.” The distance from far off areas like Srikakulam, Chittoor, Anantapur and Kurnool districts to Vijayawada-Guntur is around 450 km to 500 km.
There has been another proposal to develop a new capital around Ongole making use of lands earlier allocated to the controversial Vanpic project. “Most of the land here is marshy and infrastructure needs to be developed from scratch,” said a senior officer on the disadvantages of Ongole as the capital.
There has also been a growing consensus among those who had fought for an unified state to tone down the new capital. “We have to restrict the activity to administration alone in the new capital along the lines of United States where capital cities are small,” said Ch.Srinivas.