AMARAVATI: Breaking his six-month-long silence on the fate of upcoming capital city Amaravati, chief minister

on Tuesday floated the idea of three capital cities for

.

He said there is a strong need to decentralize development in all the three regions of the state. Assuring the continuance of Amaravati as a legislative capital city, the chief minister, however, hinted at Kurnool in

region becoming a judicial capital city with the location of high court. He had also said that Visakhapatnam in north-coastal region would fit the bill to become an executive capital city.

Speaking on the capital city issue in the state assembly, the chief minister said that the priorities of the government should be in tune with the aspirations of the people of all parts of the state. “We can consider multiple capital cities model on the lines of South Africa for development of all parts of the state. We will take final call on the issue after the receipt of the experts’ committee,” said chief minister.

Jagan’s statement particularly regarding making Kurnool judicial capital is significant in the wake of ongoing protests of the advocates from Rayalaseema region on the issue. They have been demanding shifting of high court from Amaravati to Kurnool.

Jagan said that they were expecting the experts committee report in a week. “We can think in terms of having three capitals one being the legislative capital (Amaravati) and the other two being executive capital (Visakhapatnam) and judicial capital (Kurnool). A reputed consultancy firm will also give its report and a decision would be taken after discussing the details and logistics,” he said. Visakhapatnam which has good infrastructure can be considered for being the executive capital without much investment, while the present Amaravati can be retained as the legislative capital and Kurnool can be considered as the judiciary capital which will give a balanced development.

Jagan said that previous government had readied grand designs for development of a capital city spread over 53,000 acres at a cost of Rs 1.09 lakh crore. “I too wanted to develop the capital city with Rs 1 lakh crore provided we had sufficient surplus funds. Is it proper to splurge monies on the development of just around 20 sq.km area of the state by ignoring the people’s immediate needs of drinking water, health and education?” asked Jagan.

He said that north-coastal irrigation projects require nearly Rs 16,000 crore and another Rs 60,000 crore for taking Godavari water to Rayalaseema region. Drinking water schemes in all the districts would cost around Rs 40,000 crore, said CM.

He said that they would require nearly Rs 14,000 crore for improvement of schools and Rs 30,000 crore for betterment of infrastructure in the hospital. Chief minister said that they needed to spend monies judiciously particularly when the coffers were empty. He said that TDP government had readied plans with Rs 1.09 lakh crore for Amaravati, called tenders for Rs 43,000 crore and spent just Rs 5000 crore.

Jagan said that the government is paying Rs 700 crore towards interests on the loans secured for construction of projects in Amaravati. “Keeping in view development of all the regions, we needed to give a serious thought to the three capital cities model seriously,” said the CM.