Hyderabad, Sept. 4: Chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu today named the Vijayawada region, an area steeped in history but hailed as a future global hub, the capital of residual Andhra Pradesh, saying its central location and popular sentiment had shaped the choice.
The announcement came days after the state cabinet gave the go-ahead to the decision to select the region as a whole, along the same lines as the National Capital Region, instead of a particular city.

“The cabinet met on September 1 and resolved to locate the capital city in a central place of the state, around Vijayawada, and go for decentralised development of the state with three mega cities and 14 smart cities,” the Telugu Desam Party chief told the Assembly.
The announcement raised the mercury in the House, as the future capital, where summer temperatures often soar to 47°C, lived up to its popular name — “Blazewada”, probably a play on its ancient name Bezawada.

If sizzling heat defines one aspect of the commercial hub, history lends a depth of field.
Watered by the Krishna and the Budameru rivers, Vijayawada, which translates as “Place of Victory”, had hosted Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang in 639 AD when Buddhism was at its zenith. In modern times, Mahatma Gandhi had addressed Congress sessions here.
While the region is seen as the birthplace of the Left’s agro-labour movement in the country, the 61.88sqkm city has been recognised as the “Global City of the Future” by the business magazine McKinsey Quarterly.

Naidu’s formal declaration meant the cabinet rejected the recommendations of the Centre-appointed Shivaramakrishnan committee, which had suggested a decentralised approach by locating different wings of the government at different places.

One key reason behind the choice was the region’s location. The Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangaligiri region is equidistant from Kurnool in the south-west, Srikakulam in the north-east and Tirupati in the south.

Naidu said he had also deferred to “popular sentiment” as “nearly 50 per cent” of those who had submitted representations to the Shivaramakrishnan committee had wanted the Vijayawada-Guntur region to be the capital of the residual state after Telangana was sliced out earlier this year.

Sources in the government said the new capital region could be christened NTR Nagar, after screen idol and Desam founder N.T. Rama Rao, Naidu’s late father-in-law.

Opposition leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy questioned the logic of an announcement without a debate. “Can there be judgment without trial?” he quipped in the House as his YSR Congress colleagues sat in the well of the Assembly.

Naidu said he had no “vested” interest in deciding on Vijayawada. “Even I wanted Tirupati to be the capital. But it was a conscious decision to choose Vijayawada as it is centrally located,” he said.

Vijayawada city, Andhra’s second-largest city and one of the state’s commercial hubs, had a GDP of $3 billion in 2010. The figure is expected to grow to $17 billion by 2025.

Home to one of the largest railway junctions in India, it’s also a truckers’ hub. “Vijayawada businessmen hold 18 per cent interest in the country’s lorry transport industry,” said an office-bearer of the Andhra Lorry Owners’ association at Vijayawada.