Amaravati Capital to Be Ready in 2.5 Years, Says Minister Narayana

 Vijayawada: Municipal administration and urban development minister Ponguru Narayana has said the Amaravati capital construction works will be undertaken in fast-mode and completed in 2.5 years from now.

The capital city would be constructed as per the Master Plan introduced by the previous TD government, making it one of the world’s top five capital cities, he claimed after taking charge of his departments on Sunday.

Senior officials and staff welcomed the minister at the secretariat in Velagapudi. Farmers of Amaravati capital area felicitated him.

Narayana said the construction of the capital would resume soon. A study will be done on the first phase works in 15 days and the implementation of the plan would be on a time-bound manner.

“Capital construction would be done as per the old master plan. For the first phase, the cost would be Rs 48,000 crore. The work would be done in three phases at a total cost of Rs1 lakh crore. The damaged roads will be repaired and thefts of the government property would be probed by a committee,” he said

Minister Narayana stated that the original master plan would be implemented. It aimed at carrying out the development works of Amaravati in three phases. It has been estimated that Rs 48,000 crore will be spent for the works in the first phase that would see completion of the construction works. In the second phase, metro rail construction works would be taken up.

He said that the development programmes in the capital have been designed and implemented with the help of the Singaporegovernment so that all the districts in the state can develop. “Our teams have visited Singapore, China, Japan, Russia, Malaysia etc to help create the best designs for the Amaravati capital.”

Narayana said that in the first phase, tenders were called for Rs 48,000 crore to undertake the construction of buildings for the residences of ministers, secretaries, officials and employees along with the creation of infrastructure for the capital. payments of Rs 9,000 crore have also been made. The construction of the residences of ministers, secretaries, officials and employees was complete by 90 per cent.

As part of the land acquisition required for this purpose, the notification for land pooling was given on January 1, 2015; and on February 28, 2015, the farmers handed over 34,000 acres to the government without any litigation, the minister said.

Narayana said the previous government was “very careless” in the matter of capital development. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has again assigned the responsibilities to him as municipal administration and urban development minister.

“From now on, we will conduct reviews with the authorities and clarity will emerge in the next 15 days as to how to go about,” he said.