Andhra Pradesh Industries, Commerce and IT Minister M Goutham Reddy on Thursday said that Visakhapatnam, which is under consideration to be the 'executive capital' of Andhra Pradesh, holds great potential for industrial development with natural advantages of being a coastal city and having Public Sector Units. The Minister was participating in a conference conducted by the US Consulate in Hyderabad on strengthening collaborations between the USA and India in defence manufacturing and innovation.

The Minister said that Visakhapatnam would play a major role in industrial collaboration with the US. "I would just like to tell all entrepreneurs who (have) come here (for the conference) that you will never see a much more welcoming state than Andhra Pradesh. We also declared that Visakhapatnam is going to be the Executive Capital, which is basically creating a doorstep of economic revival,” Goutham Reddy reportedly said. Entrepreneurs from Vijayawada, Tirupati, Guntur, and Visakhapatnam were present at the conference. 

Earlier this week, on the last day of the Andhra Pradesh winter Assembly session, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy made a controversial announcement that the state government is considering setting up three different capitals instead of a single one at Amaravati, in the interest of decentralisation. He stated that while Amaravati can remain the legislative capital, Vizag could become the administrative capital, and Kurnool the judicial capital. The announcement has led to severe opposition from the farmers and landowners who had given up thousands of acres of land under the Amaravati land-pooling scheme, in exchange for developed plots promised by the then TDP government. 

While an expert committee report on the matter is to be submitted soon, based on which the CM has said the final decision will be made, Goutham Reddy went on to claim that the area would have executive powers and would be able to support incoming investments, according to PTI. 

Even in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam had been the second city to come to mind, after Hyderabad, as an industrial corridor, the Minister said.

PTI Inputs