Subbarami Reddy favours Vizag as new capital of AP

, May 13: Senior

leader T Subbarami Reddy wants Visakhapatnam to be made the new capital of the residuary state of

because of its infrastructural facilities.

Reddy has submitted a representation to the Sivaramakrishnan Committee, constituted by the Centre to identify suitable locations for setting up a new capital for the state, and urged it to consider Visakhapatnam as the city, the biggest after Hyderabad, has all infrastructure facilities, he told reporters today.

He said he had shortlisted some areas-- Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, area between Guntur-Vijayawada and the area between Kakinda-Rajahmundry-- which could be considered for the new capital.

However, he favours Visakhapatnam in view of various facilities like land, water, road, rail and air connectivity. Visakhapatnam has rail accessibility to nine district headquarters out of 13 in the new state of AP and is also connected by rail and road to the neighbouring states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Reddy said.

"Instead of establishing new capital at a barren land, it is better to make Visakhapatnam as new capital and develop it," he suggested.

Visakhapatnam has two major ports and a container port handling export of minerals, fertilisers, oil products and coal and is the second largest cargo handling port in the country, he said.

The city has a large acreage of government land available in a radius of 20 kms, he pointed out.

"With the availability of infrastructure like rail, air and road connectivity and the most important factor of ready availability of government land... Visakhapatnam is the most suited place for establishing a new capital," he said.

PTI