Only Visakhapatnam can compete with tier-1 cities: Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy
VIJAYAWADA: With Visakhapatnam is all set to be the executive capital of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the government will take all steps to develop the city and ensure that it flourishes in a bigger and better way.
“Apart from the international airport at Bhogapuram, as Vizag is going to be the executive capital, we are planning metro rail there. Tenders for the international airport have been finalised and Son of the Soil GMR Group has been given the contract and the airport will come up in three years,” Jagan said.
Similarly, to provide skilled workforce to industries, the government is setting up Skill Development Colleges in each of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and five more in other places of the State.
“We are planning to tie up with world renowned institutions to upgrade the skills of engineering students and diploma holders. In Vizag, we will set up a advanced skill development college, which provides training in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and machine learning,” the Chief Minister said.
All this is being done in Vizag as it is the only place in the State, which has the potential to compete with tier-1 cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. If we want to compete, for any software companies to come, probably Vizag is the only city capable of competing with them at some stage, the Chief Minister said.
“We want to improve the standards of electronics and communication students, who pursued BTech and software engineers to take the IT skills to a different level and compete with Chennai and Bengaluru. We are also seriously contemplating setting up of the advanced skill development university in Vizag,” Jagan said, while speaking at the Mana Palana - Mee Suchana brainstorming session on industries and investments on Thursday. On the LG Polymers gas leak in Visakhapatnam, Jagan termed it an unfortunate incident, which should not have happened. “If we register cases against people in a rash manner without understanding what happened, without probing and without figuring where things went wrong, it will create a fear factor in industry that AP will take rash decisions, which will affect investments in AP,” he said.
At the same time, if no action is taken even after people died in an industrial mishap, they think that the government is not emphatic and it will attract criticism. “We need development and there should not be loss to people because of the development. That is why we went and did what we were supposed to do after the gas leak,” he said. Jagan said never in the history of India that a government reacted in a swift manner. “We did not wait for the foreign company to help us. Within 10 days, we gave a compensation of `1 crore each to the families of victims. By 4.30 am on the fateful day, the entire administration was there and people were evacuated and hospitalised. Good financial package was given to the affected people,’’ he said, adding that people have got the confidence that the government will come to their rescue in difficult times.
The CM added that both the Central and State government committees are looking into the gas leak incident and we have also asked the people to get their doubts cleared from the company through a public notification. “We will make sure that the plant does not operate. We will talk to (LG Chem) and see that it is made a green plant. No orange and red category plant should be located amid human habitations. We are working on amending the AP Pollution Control Board Act towards this end,’’ he said.