AP govt may shift admin machinery from Hyderabad to Amaravati

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government is keen on shifting the administration machinery from Hyderabad to its permanent capital city of Amaravati coming up in Vijayawada region by June next year.

Though as per the bifurcation act the city would be a joint capital of the State and Telangana till 2023.

The state government machinery has been functioning at the Secretariat located in Hyderabad but with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu himself relocating to the region, the process would gain momentum in the coming months.

Naidu is of the view that the state-level administrative apparatus should be based in the permanent capital region so as to be close to the people.

The Chief Minister had been based in Hyderabad since the bifurcation came into existence on June 2, 2014, but he has now completely shifted to Vijayawada since the last about four months from the city, which would become a part and parcel of Telangana in 2023. It's rare that he (Naidu) comes to Hyderabad.

Even for weekends, he is not coming to Hyderabad. That has given lot of impetus to the general movement of departments etc from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, Parakala Prabhakar, Advisor (Communications) to Andhra Pradesh government, stated.

He said departments like irrigation, municipal administration and information and public relations have largely moved to Vijayawada, adding, the process of holding talks with the employees on shifting to the region by June 2016 is on.

"The government is addressing the concerns of the staff with regard to office and residential space", Prabhakar said.

A committee of bureaucrats appointed by the government said in September that about 12,000 employees have to be shifted to the permanent capital region for administrative reasons.

The state government has estimated that about nine lakh sq ft of office space and about 27 lakh sq ft of residential accommodation is needed for the shifted staff, Prabhakar said.

"We are working on that. We may not be able to meet the entire thing. But some kind of a minimum, we may be able to meet", he said.

"The state government has identified Medha Towers, an IT park located close to the airport near Vijayawada, and couple of other buildings which can offer about three to four lakh sq ft of office space", he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for AP's capital city Amaravati, coming up in Vijayawada-Guntur region, on October 22. Meanwhile, the state government is keen to see that the first phase of capital city development, comprising essential government buildings like Secretariat, to be ready by the end of 2018.

"The construction of the essential buildings may not be a big challenge because the Centre is mandated to provide funds for the purpose as per the re-organisation act", he added.

Prabhakar said the selection of a Master developer for the development the capital city is not yet done. Singapore government agencies have prepared the Master plans for the three-layered capital seed capital, capital city and the capital region.

The AP government has plans to go in for PPP mode for development of Amaravati as a world-class city that would be hub of activity in various spheres like education, sports and business.

PTI