Andhra Pradesh will be formally divided into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on June 2.
While people of both the states have reconciled to the division, there is still a lot of confusion over the new capital city for Andhra Pradesh.
TDP has already announced that the new capital will be developed between Vijayawada and Guntur.
As a follow up, a temporary, make-do Secretariat is being established close to Mangalagiri Batallion. Meanwhile, union minister Venkaiah Naidu’s latest statement has led to further confusion.
He made it clear that the people of Andhra Pradesh should not expect a capital city similar to Hyderabad. Instead, a mid-sized city with top-class infrastructure would be an ideal model, he opined.
Actually, the state government has a major stake in deciding the new capital. But the BJP leaders are confident that Venkaiah’s words carry more weight as it’s the Central government that will fund the development of the new capital city.
On the other hand, TDP had promised in its manifesto that it will develop a capital city on par with Singapore.
Now, it remains to be seen if they will develop an existing city or build a new city from the scratch. The earlier government had set up a committee to submit a comprehensive report on the feasibility of developing a new capital city.
There was talk that the committee had suggested that developing a new capital city in a place like Donakonda would be ideal. For now, it looks like it will be a long time before a final decision on the new capital is taken.
