Amaravati: Vizag will be among top 5 cities in 10 years, says Goutham Reddy

Amaravati: Visakhapatnam city, which is currently contributing around 20 per cent of the revenue to the state government, will be developed as one of the top five best cities in the country in terms of economic growth, asserted minister for IT and industries Mekapapti Goutham Reddy.

In an exclusive interview with The Hans India here on Monday, Goutham Reddy said that developing Amaravati would be a Herculean task, requiring a lot of time and continuous investment of lakhs of crores of rupees.

He explained that at present the city's economy is around US$ 30 billion (Rs 2,10,000 crore) whereas the economic contribution of Vijayawada is just around US$ 5.6 billion (Rs 39,200 crore) and Guntur is more than US$ 7 billion (Rs 49,000 crore). If the government could invest just US$ 2 billion (Rs 14,000 crore) in developing Visakhapatnam, then it will contribute US$ 50 billion to US$ 55 billion (Rs 3.5 lakh Rs 3.85 lakh crore) to the economy within 10 years, he elaborated.

At present, Visakhapatnam city is the ninth biggest city in the country, in terms of economic contribution. The minister said as per the present Master Plan, the entire Amaravati project needs more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Out of which the government has to invest at least Rs 1.09 lakh crore in the first phase itself. So far, the government was able to invest only Rs 5,900 crore as part of the first phase.

"At present, the state government is not in a position to afford such huge investment By investing just US$ 2 billion (Rs 14,000 crore) in Visakhapatnam, the government will enhance its tax revenue from the present around 20 percent to more than 40 per cent. We did not have a city like Hyderabad which contributes more than 60 per cent of revenue to Telangana. So, it is easy to get such revenue to the state from Visakhapatnam," he explained.

On the other hand, the government has plans to develop Amaravati region by promoting the service sector, instead of industrial sector. Goutham Reddy indicated that the government will develop educational institutions, hospitals and agriculture zone in this area.

The industries minister observed that the soil in this area was not suggestible for industrialisation. Since plenty of groundwater was available here, the human settlements tend to increase. "The lands in the Amaravati will be put to use as and when required for the government," he said.