Visakhapatnam: Lack of proper social infrastructure, world-class education and healthcare facilities are preventing outsiders from choosing Vizag as a job destination. There are no sufficient international schools, very few weekend getaways and no facilities for quality nightlife. Recently, two pubs closed the shutters in the city due to to collection of high licence fee by the excise department. Till now, there were issues related to world-class healthcare facilities. Now, a few corporate hospitals started their operations in Vizag at the Health City at Arilova.

“There are around 200 expats working at our facility. Always what they rue is lack of proper quality international standard education for their children, health care facilities and other than Araku there is no good tourist destination for them to go out on weekends. Many of them like the city, but ultimately they seek transfer to other facilities in other countries. There is no active nightlife either. What would they do after work? The government should focus on these aspects and they should also see to that tourism infrastructure is developed,” said Brandix India Apparel City (P) Ltd, COO Ragupathy Veeraswamy. The high liquor licensing costs pushed pubs to close down. The liquor or bar licence costs a staggering Rs 40 lakhs in Andhra Pradesh whereas in some states its only Rs 10 lakh. Strict enforcement of timings is one of the reasons for the pubs to be closed.

“We should take cue from neighbouring Mumbai. Hardliner party like Shiva Sena in campaigned and advocated for quality active nightlife to make it a vibrant global city. Now the police there has decided to allow pubs, discos, eateries to be open all night. Such things should be replicated here to attract outsiders to the city. These issues will also influence investments into Visakhapatnam. The liquor licence fee should also be revised,” said party enthusiast Vishnu Dantu. “Issues related to liquor licence fee and other taxes have already been taken to the notice of the chief minister,” said district collector Dr N Yuvaraj.