CM-designate Chandrababu Naidu sees Seemandhra capital near Vijayawada
Hyderabad: Some of the new schemes that have been proposed in the vision document of Andhra Pradesh chief minister-designate N Chandrababu Naidu for development of his region include a greenfield international airport at Kurnool, identifying the best location for the capital near Vijayawada, which includes the Assembly, Secretariat, different government departments and employee housing facilities.
A provision will be made for the development of an underground metro, wide roads and adequate sidewalks for pedestrians, drainage facilities and large open spaces for parks. All utilities, including power lines, will be underground. Seven mega growth zones will be developed. These are:
Visakhapatnam: IT, financial, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, ports and related industries, media and entertainment.
Rajahmundry-Kakinada: Marine culture, agri-processing, power and energy
Eluru-Vijayawada-Guntur: Agri processing, auto, textiles mineral processing, trading, education, healthcare, IT and ITeS.
Ongole-Chirala-Bapatla: Textiles agri-processing, mineral processing, marine processing.
Nellore-Tirupati: Manufacturing, marine processing
Anantapur-Kadapa: Mining, manufacture
Kurnool: Mining, mineral processing, manufacturing.
The document focuses on different sectors:
Roads: Existing national highways to be developed to six lanes, state highways to four lanes, single-lane village roads into double lanes. Laying a four-lane coastal road from Vizag to Ongole, which will merge with NH 5, six-lane roads in all category A, B and C cities, expressways to all major demand centres across the state and the country, double the road length to reach over 4 lakh km.
Railway: High speed rail corridor along the identified seven industrial zones; an underground metro rail system in major cities in Kurnool, Kadapa, Vizag and Krishna districts. Study the feasibility to develop bullet trains by 2020.
Airport connectivity: Vizag and Vijayawada airports will be converted into international airports, Rajahmundry and Tirupati airports will be expanded. Five domestic airports to be functioning by 2022 across major demand hubs. New international airport at Kurnool.
Ports: Develop Vizag port into one of country’s largest and busiest ports to handle over 150 million tonnes. Develop the ports at Nellore, Machilipatnam and Kakinada.
Power: Assuming that only 40 per cent of the capacity is added, this represents net addition of 5,256 MW.
Education: Policies to promote high quality educational institutions like IIM, IIT, AIIMS, IIIT, establishment of petroleum, chemical and agricultural universities. More engineering and medical colleges to be developed.
Syllabus will be revised every 2 to 3 years as per the requirements of industry. There will be emphasis on primary and secondary education.
