AP govt may shift admin machinery from Hyderabad to Amaravati

Hyderabad, Nov 12: 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, told PTI.

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.

PTI