Will Jagan’s Three Capital Decision Spur Equal Growth?

A proposal by the State of Andhra Pradesh to have three capitals rather than one could be a model for more equal development. It also helps to release pressure from the country's overcrowded cities, say planning experts.

Last month, the government of AP passed the Decentralisation and Equal Development of All Regions Bill to pave the way for three cities to be the executive, judicial and legislative centers, rather than build a new capital city.

Having 3 capitals is an anomaly in India, where State capitals have long been centers of power, drawing the bulk of investment and infrastructure building, and becoming magnets for thousands of migrants from the villages every day seeking jobs.

But with increasingly crowded cities and lopsided economic growth in many states, decentralization is desperately needed, said Bhanu Joshi, a former member of a committee that studied the feasibility of the multi-capital plan.

"Andhra Pradesh is endowed with different natural resources - a policy of balanced regional development is the only way forward," Joshi said.

AP was split in two in 2014 after a decade-long movement for a separate State, with Telangana, hived off the northwestern part in June 2014.

Andhra Pradesh's capital, Hyderabad, became the capital of Telangana, but will also remain capital of AP for a period of up to 10 years so the State can establish its capital. Andhra Pradesh's former CM N Chandrababu Naidu, who is credited with transforming Hyderabad into a thriving technology hub, decided to build a new capital, Amaravati, touted as a "smart city" with environment-friendly features.

But the plan was beset by protests of farmers unwilling to give up land, and warnings of the ecological impact and potential for flooding from building close to the river.

A new government, led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, commissioned studies into the feasibility of a multi-capital plan, then scrapped the Amaravati project based on their recommendations.

Amaravati - where some administrative buildings have been built - is to be the State's legislative capital, with the Kurnool, the judicial capital, and the coastal city of Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Reddy said.

Several countries, from Brazil to Myanmar, have tried to decongest their crowded capitals by moving or building new ones, but with mixed success.

India has five megacities with populations of more than 10 million each and is forecasted to have two more by 2030, according to the United Nations.

Each of these cities - including Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata - suffers from a lack of adequate public transport and affordable housing, along with increasing congestion and pollution.

While big cities create wealth and generate employment, they also drive climate change, impacts and worsens inequality and exclusion, said the UN.

But declaring a city a capital will not guarantee decentralization or more equal development, said Srinivas Chokkakula, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a think tank in New Delhi.

But farmers in over two dozen villages who pooled at least 33,000 acres (13,355 hectares) of land for the new capital in Amaravati have protested for weeks against the decision.

A wider public consultation process would have helped make the decision more acceptable, said EAS Sarma, a land rights activist and a former bureaucrat who had filed a petition against the Amaravati project.

What's now required is proper planning, or moving the heads of departments and the secretariat to Visakhapatnam will impose severe stress on the resources of the city, including water, housing, and land, he said.

"It will only create new problems for the residents."