State government should decide on location of new AP capital: Panel

Hyderabad: The five-member central expert committee, headed by former Union Urban Development Secretary K C Sivaramakrishnan, will not zero in on any particular location for the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh as it is for the Government of Andhra Pradesh to take a decision in this regard in consultation with the Government of India.

"It is not that easy to pick a capital but we are as close to an answer as possible. Location of the capital should, however, be decided by the state government in consultation with the Centre," Sivaramakrishnan told a press conference on Saturday evening after a two-hour discussion with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the subject.

"Much more than the symbolic value of capital, development is more important. We have identified nearly 13-14 locations all over AP, which can be developed as growth centres. We should see that no particular centre becomes dominant. The state government is conscious about this," the former bureaucrat remarked, adding that they "felt encouraged" that the Chief Minister had a vision.

"AP is now more like Kerala. The Chief Minister has a vision for whole of AP. He is planning for state-wide development. Balanced development will be the fruit of AP," Sivaramakrishnan said.

Noting that "this kind of bifurcation (of the state) is unprecedented in Indian history", he, however, observed that building the new state provided a "great opportunity" of doing things differently.

The expert committee, he added, suggested examples of various capital cities to the Chief Minister like Canberra, Islamabad, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Putrajaya and Brasilia.

"You need not necessarily have all in one place. For Bhubaneswar, there is Cuttack. For Gandhinagar, there is Ahmedabad where development is spread. Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital but all government offices are located in Putrajaya. Similarly, there is Rawalpindi for Islamabad. The Bhubaneswar model is reasonably successful," Sivaramakrishnan explained.

"The state government has 192 offices, all located in Hyderabad. There are 89 other organs related to AP in Hyderabad. Now, all these need not be located in one place in the new state. There is no point having the office of Director of Ports in Anantapuram where there is no water at all," he pointed out.

When pointed out that the Chief Minister was keen on having Vijayawada-Guntur as the new capital, the committee head said they were "not against" the two cities.

"The Chief Minister told us that centrality of the (capital’s) location must be considered. It can't be disputed. But availability of land is an issue in Vijayawada-Guntur region as agriculture is the prime activity there. You can’t displace people or rob them of livelihood for the sake of the capital," he noted.

Though the committee has time till the September to submit its report, Sivaramakrishnan said they would hopefully present it by mid-August.

"We will be discussing with the Government of India the special arrangements that have to be made for building AP’s new capital as per the Reorganisation Act. We have to explain the problems to the Centre and there are certain practical realities to be sorted out," he added.