Tardy pace of work on capital Amaravati irks land donors

Vijayawada: The construction of Andhra Pradesh's new capital, Amaravati, has not progressed much in the past three years. Only temporary structures have been constructed in the past 36 months.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of a 'world-class new capital' for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh on October 22, 2015, necessitated by the bifurcation of the state in 2014. Construction of the core capital area has not start but a temporary Secretariat and Assembly complexes have been completed and the AP government is functioning from those interim complexes at Velagapudi.

Development of basic amenities is under progress. This includes construction of 24 roads of the total 34 roads that have been planned.  Housing complexes for all India rank officers, houses for legislators and government officials is heading towards completion.

The Kondaveeti Vegu stream, which used to inundate the Amaravato area frequently, has been modernised into a lift irrigation scheme.

Farmers whose lands fell within the Amaravati Capital Region, had offered 33,000 acres under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS), hoping for swift development of the new capital, but they are disappointed with the slow pace of development and no progress in the Amaravati core capital.

G. Venkateswarlu, P. Nageswara Rao, and Rambabu who are among the disappointed farmers, said that like the Secretariat and Assembly buildings were constructed in just seven months, the Amaravati core capital construction can also be carried out as swiftly but the work has not even started.

They lamented that the government offered payment of '50,000 per annum, per acre for semi-urban and fertile lands, but only '30,000 per annum was given for dry lands, which is very meagre. They said '4,500 and '2,500 per month is insufficient to sustain a family of four members but they managed a living by doing other work, hoping that Amaravati would be developed soon. They want work on the core capital, and ongoing roads and structures to be given top priority.

APCRDA vice chairman and minister P. Narayana said that work on administrative buildings in the core capital has started.

The construction of the city court building is progressing, and the work on housing complexes of all- India officials, ministers, legislators and government employees has gathered momentum and will be completed by December.

Mr Narayana said that the ground work of the Secretariat building has started and soon construction of other buildings of the core capital will be launched.