'Will shift to Vizag in Dec', announces Andhra CM

Visakhapatnam, Oct 16 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday announced that he will shift to Visakhapatnam in December this year.

He made the announcement at the inauguration of Infosys’ development centre at Rushikonda in the port city.

“I was hoping for October but December would probably be the outer line when I would actually be staying in Vizag,” he said, hoping that this would give the required push to make Vizag Tier-I city.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said he had asked officers to look for good premises for himself to shift to the port city. He said the officials scouted for a suitable campus for him, his security and the CMO officials.

The chief minister said that Vizag has the potential to become another Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Chennai.

“Unfortunately after Hyderabad broke away post bifurcation we do not have a Tier-I city as such. IT and related services and the kind of industries related to Tier-I cities could not be housed in Vizag because Hyderabad was our capital. Unfortunately, Vizag remained a Tier-II city. Nevertheless Vizag is the biggest city in Andhra Pradesh and has the potential to catapult into Tier-I city,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out that Vizag is an educational hub with eight universities, four medical colleges, 14 engineering colleges and 12 degree colleges. The city is generating 12,000 to 15,000 engineers every year, he said.

The chief minister said that Vizag also has prestigious institutes like IIM and National Law University. The city also has quite a few public sector companies IOC, Eastern Naval Command which houses almost 20,000 Naval officers and families, strong port based infrastructure with two ports while a third port is coming up at Srikakulam, not far from the city. An international airport is also taking off and hopes that it will be ready in the next two years.

Last week, the state government constituted a committee of officials to identify suitable transit accommodation, including a camp office for the Chief Minister and accommodation for senior functionaries.

It was stated that the chief minister will be visiting Visakhapatnam on a regular basis to hold review meetings on the development of north coastal Andhra Pradesh.

During a cabinet meeting held last month, the Chief Minister had announced that the state administration would shift to Visakhapatnam on Dasara.

Addressing the Global Investors Summit in Vizag in March, Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced that Visakhapatnam will be the executive capital of the state in the days to come.

It was on December 17, 2019 that Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced in the state Assembly that three state capitals will be developed reversing the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the state capital.

The YSRCP government mooted Visakhapatnam as administrative capital, Kurnool as judicial capital and Amaravati as legislative capital.

However, the protest by farmers of Amaravati over shifting of the capital and the high court order directing the government to develop Amaravati as the state capital had delayed the process.