India’s Biggest Urban Development Body In Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s native Kadapa is now the biggest urban development body in India. Spread over 12,780 sq km, Annamaiah urban development authority (UDA) that controls the urban areas of Kadapa district, is the first urban development body in the country to have an area over 9,000 sq kilometres. The state government issued orders including 520 villages spread over 41 mandals adding 7,388 sq km to Annamaiah UDA taking its over all area to 12,780 sq km. Jagan’s predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu created the country’s biggest urban agglomeration, APCRDA, to develop the proposed capital city Amaravati for the residuary Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation. The APCRDA was created in 2016 with an area of over 7,000 square kilometres. However, the Jagan government had renamed it as Amaravati Metropolitan Development Authority expanding its area to 8,352 kilometres in 2020. But, after the withdrawal of the legislation on three capital cities, the APCRDA was restored Though Annamaiah UDA has a vast geographic area, its urban planning and development of civic infrastructure largely depends on the revenue it generates or the funds it gets from the state government. Most of the civic bodies and UDAs are cash-strapped. Urban bodies are generally left to fend for themselves often affecting development programmes. However, Annamaiah UDA may not face any funds crunch as incidentally, Jagan had the other day said in the state Assembly that he had special love for his home district and would do anything to develop it. Already, Pulivendula, which is part of the Annamaiah UDA, has been receiving a lion’s share in development works. Pulivendula is represented by Jagan in the state assembly. AP had three UDAs before bifurcation - Visakhapatnam UDA, Tirupati UDA and Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali UDA. Of these, Visakhapatnam UDA was the biggest with an area of 7,328.86 km. Jagan government created 12 UDAs in 2019. In the last two years, the government added more villages to the new UDAs and the latest is Annamaiah UDA.