Vizag Is Developing Like Mumbai: CM Chandrababu Naidu

Naidu on Friday expressed confidence that Visakhapatnam would evolve into a major metropolitan centre in the East, comparable to Mumbai in the West, and would be recognised as one of India’s leading cities within the next 15 years.

In a chat with ministers at the end of the cabinet meeting at the Secretariat, he advised them to ensure that companies lined up for investment by the state government commenced their operations without any hitch.

The CM urged ministers to be the driving force in activating their departments and ensuring result-oriented performance rather than depending solely on officials.

Naidu said while bureaucrats might guide and propose rules, ministers must lead and deliver. “The efficiency of a minister is reflected only when they make non-performing officials active —by either counseling or reprimanding them,” he remarked.

He said, “It is the ministers, not officials, who have to face the public and contest elections.”

Naidu reviewed recent developments and expressed satisfaction over the pace of the state’s progress in the past 15 months. “We have attracted more investments during this short span than in my earlier 15 years as chief minister.” Ministers, he said, must explain to the public how these large-scale investments would benefit the state politically and economically.

Referring to the industrial growth in Visakhapatnam, the CM said the city was emerging as a major IT hub with tech giants like Google and TCS establishing their presence. Thousands of IT jobs are expected to be created in the city by 2028, he said.

Stressing the expansion of the remote working sector, Naidu pointed out that about 4.7 lakh professionals are currently engaged in work-from-home setups and projected that the number could rise to 10 lakh in the coming years. He asked ministers to highlight issues such as protecting the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and achieving a separate railway zone for the region.

Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan said Google setting up a data centre in Visakhapatnam would be a significant boost to the state’s technology ecosystem.

Before the cabinet meeting, education minister Nara Lokesh held a session with fellow ministers to cite attempts by the YSR Congress to “create communal divisions.” Ministers must remain vigilant against such conspiracies by YSRC, he said while highlighting recent arson attack on the Ambedkar statue in Chittoor district.

Lokesh urged ministers to strongly counter these tactics and undertake field visits to such area