VI JAYAWADA
Two weeks after the G.N. Rao committee recommended that Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool be developed as cities representing three distinct capital functions, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) gave a similar advice in its report titled ‘Strategy for Balanced and Inclusive Growth in Andhra Pradesh’ which was submitted to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday.
Six development regions
Besides, the BCG segregated the State into six regions — Uttarandhra, Dakshinandhra, Godavari and Krishna deltas and East and West Rayalaseema — and mooted specific themes of development for them.
Briefing mediapersons on the BCG report, Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration G.S.R.K.R. Vijaya Kumar said the BCG stated that the government of Andhra Pradesh had requested to look into a distributed capital model and it noted that countries/States considered distributed capitals to address regional aspirations and minimise the cost of capital set-up and facilitating ease of citizen access to government services like in Germany and South Korea.
Distributed Capital
Accordingly, the BCG prioritised Amaravati for Legislature, Visakhapatnam for Secretariat and Kurnool for High Court and provided relative advantages and disadvantages of each option around distributed capital with separation of Judiciary, Legislature and Executive across those cities.
Keeping the investment requirement (₹1 lakh crore as per the CRDA white paper dated June 2019) and a debt burden of ₹2.25 lakh crore in view, the BCG proposed that Amaravati region be developed as a hub for educational institutions, food and fisheries and hi-tech organic agriculture through cluster approach.
It (the BCG) has also stated that as per the technical studies jointly done by A.P. State Disaster Management Authority and IIT Madras, the area up to 5 km from the Krishna river front was highly prone to flooding/inundation and hence not recommended for constructions.
BCG suggested that agricultural realisation per unit of cultivated land should be focussed in nine districts outside Krishna-Godavari belt, per-capita industrial Gross Value Addition for seven out of 13 districts be improved, the need for increasing fish production in 11 districts be looked into and that Godavari-Penna linking and expansion of carrying capacity of canals in Rayalaseema are critical for increasing the irrigated land in the parched region.
