VIJAYAWADA: Surprising though it may seem, the money the city will get under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is meant not just for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) but to a few other local bodies as well.

Reason: It is the Vijayawada Urban Agglomeration (VUA), not just the area governed by the VMC, which has been selected for funding under JNNURM.

In the city development plan submitted to the Union Ministry of Urban Development for JNNURM funding, the VMC mentioned VUA as including Mangalagiri town and Tadepalli panchayat (both in Guntur district), and the panchayats of Kanuru, Ramavarappadu, Prasadampadu and Yenamalakuduru, which are spread around the city closely.

This was done to get the city included in the category of `million-plus cities/urban agglomerations'. While the first category was mega cities with four million-plus population, the last category considered for special funding was either State capitals or places of historic/religious/tourist importance.

The population within the VMC limits as per 2001 census was only 8.45 lakhs. By including Mangalagiri (62,048), Kanuru (30,696), Prasadampadu (12,808), Yenamalakuduru (25,463) and Tadepalli (41,705), the total population of VUA has been shown as 10,33,562. The Union Ministry of Urban Development puts it at 10.39 lakh.

The move also appears as a precursor to giving a formal shape to the idea of Greater Vijayawada comprising the surrounding panchayats. Support from some political quarters has already been extended to the Greater Vijayawada concept.

Development strategy

While the CDP of Vijayawada was prepared on the basis of city development strategy formulated earlier, the inputs relating to Mangalagiri were taken from the municipal action plan, which was prepared through a consultative process carried out under Andhra Pradesh Urban Reforms and Municipal Services Project and Rajiv Nagara Bata in 2005. The CDP makes no mention of any such inputs from the panchayats.

Having included Mangalagiri and other panchayats in the VUA for crossing the qualifying line, the VMC will be expected in the days to come to spend a portion of the funds it will get under JNNURM on these areas too.

VMC Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar says that the CDP will be continued to be worked on with the inputs provided by local bodies included in the VUA. These local bodies will have to get their own detailed project reports pertaining to infrastructure needs. Mangalagiri and other panchayats included in the VUA will get their share of money sanctioned under JNNURM over the next seven years based on these project reports, he says.

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