Andhra Pradesh budget allocations to Visakhapatnam

The recently announced budget for Andhra Pradesh for the financial year 2019-20 favours the implementation of the YSRCP Government’s navarathnalu and welfare-schemes. Announced by State Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, the budget overlays a total sum of Rs 2,27,974 crore for the State’s progress in the coming financial year. Coming to Visakhapatnam, the budget has allocated funds to a few key projects and some long-pending issues.

While the Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor has been allocated Rs 200 crore, Rs 66 crore has been allocated for the development of Intelligent Global Hub for Digital Pedagogies. Andhra University gets Rs 238.16 crore as compared to Rs 330 crore which was requested by the authorities. The Finance Minister has allocated Rs 1.10 crore to Food Craft Institute while Police Commissionerate gets Rs 255.15 crore. The Andhra Pradesh budget has also allocated Rs 30 crore for MedTech, Rs 14.80 crore for Centre of Excellence and Rs 75 crore for the Smart Cities project.

The other key announcements to Visakhapatnam include setting up a Skill Development University in PPP mode, a Ward Secretariat for every 5000 people, and a separate section for burn injuries in King George Hospital.

Another major announcement was that of the implementation of the monorail in Visakhapatnam. The implementation of the monorail project is aimed at easing the increasing demand for public transport in an eco-friendly way. While the announcement of the monorail is being welcomed by a few who opine that the system would be suited for a city like Visakhapatnam, it has parallelly raised doubts on the fate of the much-awaited metro rail project.