Donations start pouring in for building new Andhra capital

Donations for building the new capital of Andhra Pradesh started pouring in Thursday soon after Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu appealed to people to contribute.

Various organisations in this coastal city announced contribution of Rs.65 lakh, a couple of hours after Naidu made the appeal.

Naidu, who chaired his cabinet's first meeting here, has already hinted the capital will be built between Vijayawada and Guntur.

IBP Century Club in Visakhapatnam announced Rs.25 lakh while CMR Group head M. Venkaramna contributed Rs.20 lakh. The employees of Andhra University, where the cabinet meet was held, decided to give a month's salary. This amount will be around Rs.15 lakh. A private hospital also announced Rs.5 lakh donation.

Naidu said the development of the new capital required Rs.4 to Rs.5 lakh crore. He said the task was tough as the state is staring at a deficit of Rs.15,900 crore.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief is the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after separate Telangana state was carved out.

Credited with developing Hyderabad into an information technology hub, Naidu was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1995 to 2004.

Though Hyderabad has been declared common capital of the two states for 10 years, it is part of Telangana and its revenues will go to the new state.

Andhra Pradesh has already started search for a city to build and develop the capital.