Guwahati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday declared Visakhapatnam to be the new state capital. He also said that there are no longer any intentions to build Amaravati as the nation’s capital on the banks of the Krishna River.
The announcement of a new capital for Andhra has been made nine years after the state of Telangana was split off from its territory and awarded Hyderabad as its capital.
At an event in Delhi the YSR Congress chief said: “… I invite you to Visakhapatnam, which is going to be our capital in the days to come. I myself will also be shifting to Visakhapatnam in the months to come.”
“We’re organising a global summit… an investors summit on March 3-4 (in Visakhapatnam) (and I want) to take this opportunity to personally invite all of you to the summit… and request all of you to not only come but also put in a good word, a strong word, to colleagues abroad,” the chief minister said.
At the International Diplomatic Alliance meet in Delhi he urged investors to ‘visit us and see… how easy it is to do business in the state of Andhra Pradesh’.
The decision of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital, for which more than 33,000 acres of land had been purchased from farmers in Amaravati, has caused social, legal, economic, and political strife in recent years.