Andhra Pradesh to have 26 districts now; Vijayawada headquarters of NTR District

The Andhra Pradesh government is all set to create 13 new districts in the state for ease of administration. Andhra Pradesh, which currently has 13 districts, will now have 26. The state cabinet approved the proposal to form the new districts and a notification to this effect is likely to be issued soon.

Names of the new districts were finalized in a virtual meeting of cabinet ministers on Tuesday. The new districts are being formed under the AP Districts Formation Act, Section 3(5).

The new districts are being created based on Parliamentary constituencies in the state. However, some of them have been renamed. Srikakulam town will be the headquarters of the Srikakulam district and Vizianagaram will be the headquarters of Vizianagaram district. Manyam district has been carved out of Vizianagaram district with Parvathipuram as its headquarters.

Notably, Araku valley region in Visakhapatnam district has been named Alluri Sitharama Raju district with Paderu as its headquarters. Visakhapatnam will have Visakhapatnam city as its headquarters. The area of Visakhapatnam will now have an area of 928 sq km, which is basically the port city and its suburbs. Anakapalli has been made a new district with Anakapalli town as headquarters.

East Godavari district has been divided into three districts — Kakinada, Konaseema and East Godavari, with Kakinada, Amalapuram and Rajamahendravaram as their headquarters, respectively. West Godavari district has been split into two districts — West Godavari with Bheemavaram as its headquarters and Eluru with Eluru as headquarters.

Krishna district has been split into two districts — NTR district and Krishna district with Vijayawada and Machilipatnam being their headquarters, respectively. Guntur district has been divided into three districts — Guntur with Guntur as its headquarters, Bapatla with Bapatla as its headquarters, Palnadu with Narasaraopet as its headquarters.

Nellore will be headquarters of Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district and Ongole will be headquarters of Prakasam district. Kurnool district has been divided into Kurnool and Nandyal districts with Kurnool and Nandyal towns as their headquarters, respectively. Anantapur district has been split into two districts — Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai district, with Anantapur and Puttaparthi as their new headquarters respectively. YSR Kadapa will have Kadapa as its headquarters, while Rajampet parliamentary constituency has been made Annamayya district with Rayachoti as its headquarters. Chittoor district has been divided into Chittoor and Sri Balaji districts, with Chittoor and Tirupati as their headquarters.

Sometime ago, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced a plan to carve out new districts taking each Lok Sabha constituency as a unit as the demand for the new districts has been there for several years. After Telangana created 23 new districts making its total number 33, there has been a view that it will be better to have smaller districts for administrative convenience in AP too, as population has increased in considerable size in the last few years.