New townships to be developed in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: The real estate may be in slump and the realtors are in distress but the Andhra Pradesh government is now embarked on building townships across the state in partnership with private realtors. The government had recently established Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (APTIDCO) and called for expression of interest from private township developers to build ‘economic cities’ across the state.

APTIDCO is interested in promoting development of townships combining residential, commercial, industrial, educational, healthcare, sho-pping, entertainment and leisure as comprehensive ‘economic cities’ facilitating ‘walk to work’ to achi-eve a comprehensive social eco system. Expression of Interest (EOI) was invited from developers owning land parcels (wholly/jointly) of arou-nd 25 acres within municipal limits and/or around 100 acres outside municipal limits, willing to develop their lands into economic cities.

Larger sites above 100 acres are being preferred. The selection of private lands for suitability of development as ‘Economic Cities’ will be a two-stage process by a technical committee APTIDCO is wholly owned by the government which is intended to provide affordable housing under the Pradhan Man-tri Awas Yojana (PMAY) ‘Housing for All’ scheme of the Government of India. It was in June last year that the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved “Housing for All by 2022” aimed for urban areas involving private players.

In Andhra Pradesh, around 59 urban local bodies had prepared Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to take up such housing projects and also appointed regional committees with certain districts in each group. As per the demand, surveys were conducted across the 13 districts in the state and there is a need for 1,93,147 houses in the first phase. “These committees will go through the draft plan of action created by the urban local bodies concerned and make sure that all the aspects of development are included in the plan prepared and give final touches to the city-level plans. After finalisation of city-level plan, the projects which are already prepared will be taken up for implementation,” said a senior official of the department of municipal administration and urban development here on Friday.