Nellore: The inclusion of towns from Kavali in the north end and Tada in the southern end of the district, nearly 150 km apart, under the Nellore Urban Development Authority (NUDA) administration has raised doubts on whether the NUDA would be able to keep builders and layout promoters in check. Almost all the existing urban development authorities are compact and limited to the city and its outskirts, be it Tirupati, Vijayawada, Puttaparthi or Machilipatnam.
In the backdrop of the Cabinet approval for the authority, NUDA has become the talk of the town, especially in municipalities like Kavali, Gudur, Nayudupeta and Sullurpeta, besides Nellore Municipal Corporation. The total population of SPSR Nellore district is 29,63,557 as per 2011 census. NUDA covers 1,644.19 sq km of area and has 13,01,602 population, including 8,62,107 living in the five urban local bodies.
One of the major advantages of an UDA is sustainable integrated development with a master plan, zone development plan for the entire area, besides plans for utility and service infrastructure, including power, water, sewage, solid waste, drainage and irrigation. This is in addition to plans for better connectivity such as transport network and other communications, apart from social infrastructure like education, health, housing and recreation, among others.
A senior official of the district underlined the need to appoint a competent IAS official as the managing director and vice-chairman for preparing the master plan and suggested postponing the formation of the nominated body till the completion of the plan to prevent political interference. Nellore City legislator Dr. P. Anilkumar Yadav said the large area selected would pose several difficulties to achieve the primary objective of the proposed Urban Development Authority, which is to carry out sustainable integrated development of its jurisdiction area.
“It appears to me that all the new UDAs are another gimmick of the TD government for publicity and to rehabilitate jobless party cadres with nominated posts,” he quipped. Expressing similar opinion, Nellore rural MLA K. Sridhar Reddy suspected that NUDA was meant for procuring land using its power for industries without files doing the rounds to the capital. Though NUDA was designed with focus on villages and towns within 5-km radius to the NH, Krishnapatnam Port and neighbouring industrial areas have been included in the authority reportedly with focus on Chennai-Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridors.
However, the industrial belt in Kota and Chillakur mandals and Menakuru IP, which are part of CBIC and VCIC, are not included. Speaking to this newspaper, urban development minister P. Narayana said they had chosen towns and villages that have potential for industrial and housing development. He ruled out management problems pointing to proposal to set up regional centres to monitor the progress of development and other activities.
He said they were going ahead with the preparation of master plan after the proposal is passed in the Assembly and the plan would be placed before the public for one month for feedback, and the final plan will be prepared thereafter. He added that there was no bar on including new areas, be it Kota or Menakuru or any other place, in NUDA in future.
