As Tamil Nadu is warming up for the Assembly elections early next year, there has been a clamour among ruling AIADMK ministers for a second capital on the lines of Andhra Pradesh. Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar raised the pitch over making Madurai the second capital.
He urged the high command to consider the temple city located in the southern zone as a counter-balance to Chennai’s location in the northern part of TN. Taking this theme forward, Tourism Minister Vellamandi N Natarajan pitched Tiruchy as the best option, claiming it is equipped with good infrastructure including an international airport and is agriculturally prosperous as it is in the Delta region, and, most importantly, that it was the choice of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran.
But Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami put an end to the varying demands last week, saying these were opinions of individual ministers, not that of the party or the government. Experts have pointed out that Chennai’s expansion has reached a saturation level and it is therefore prudent to come up with an alternative.
They also said that decentralisation was important, not by going for a second capital, but by the Cities Sharing Capital Functions (CSCF) project, a concept to set up satellite cities to improve infrastructure and expand economic and socio-cultural activities. The idea, mooted by the School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, and senior professor Dr Abdul Razak Mohamed—who was part of the high-level committee constituted by the AP government for developing state capitals—was that multiple cities sharing functions of the capital will help distribute both human and economic resources.
Such organic decentralisation and subsequent creation of infrastructure-rich cities would help in an even distribution of assets, industries and employment, and keep real estate interests out of the table. This may also help parties decentralise their pitch by working towards development across the state. When other cities get attention, manufacturing and IT industries may consider shifting out of Chennai. This will help decongest the capital and help industries attract local labour.