Guntur: Anti-LPS farmers get a Japanese design boost'

Guntur: While there is a general sense of disappointment among the TD supporters over the AP government accepting the less expensive Japanese designs for Amaravati, the decision has given a chance to anti-LPS landowners to thump their chests.

TD supporters, who had offered their land as part of the LPS, had been impressed by the Singaporeans’ plans, but were now disappointed but continue to support the decision since the Japanese option is the less expensive of the two.

Their disappointment is that the Japanese designs feature only a single tall building while the plans submitted earlier by architects from Singapore had an array of skyscrapers. In the Japanese plan, the 15-storeyed Secretariat is the tallest building.

However, anti-LPS farmers in Undavalli and Penumaka questioned the need for collecting huge chunks of land for establishing the new capital when the government was preferring cost-effective construction.

G. Rajesh and other villagers welcomed the concept of green and blue capital with priority to the environment, while reminding that the government was turning nearly 50,000 acres of fertile land into barren land while important establishments like the Assembly and Secretariat would come up in only 900 acres.

They felt 20,000 acres was sufficient for basic amenities, industrial promotion, tourism, education and other sectors in the new capital, even if the population increases in the future. They said the government was claiming to promote greenery but doing just the opposite -- devastating green fields and the environment.

“As the government was preferring to go for cost-effective methods and promoting the green and blue concept, it should rethink about collecting huge chunks of land,” they said.

However, CRDA officials said the maps released were just preliminary ones and may be revised.

“We will consider suggestions and objections from all sections of the people before giving a nod to the Japanese plans,” they said.