Naidu calls for revival of infra projects he started in last term

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has called for the revival of all his previous infrastructure projects that the previous government had either stalled or cancelled.

Naidu held a review meeting with officials of the department of infrastructure and investment here on Tuesday. He said the previous government had diluted infrastructure projects initiated by his government in the 2014-19 period. Officials must revive all such projects and put them back on track expeditiously, he said.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to give special attention to the functioning of the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board, the AP Maritime Infrastructure Development Corporation, and the setting up of special purpose vehicles (SVPs) in various projects and the AP Inland Waterways Authority.

He underscored the importance of completing the execution of ports and fishing harbours in fast mode and promised to come up with an AP Maritime Master Plan and a Maritime Policy.

On airports, the CM wanted construction of airports/airstrips at Dagadarthi in Nellore district, Kuppam in Chittoor district, Nagarjuna Sagar in Palnadu district and Mulapeta in Srikakulam.

“Though these projects got the sanction and land acquisition was done earlier, the YSRC government stopped them. Officials must resume the works on these airports and complete them fast.”

He said AP should have 12 to 14 airports/airstrips. “We would explore ways to develop an airport/airstrip at Tadipatri in Anantapur district and at Tuni in Kakinada district,” he said, and called for efforts to get a unit of the Flying Training Organisation at Kurnool airport.

Naidu asked the officials to prepare projects wherein cargo transportation could be taken up from the airports. If the airports, sea ports and national highways were linked, it would help in employment generation and rapid development of the state, he averred.

The chief minister asked the officials to bring AP Aviation Corporation into the general administration department and the AP Digital Corporation into the Information and Public Relations department. “Merge the AP Towers Corporation into AP FiberNet Ltd.”

Naidu said, “We had established fibernet connectivity to a length of 24,000km in AP and got nine lakh connections. We relied on electric poles to lay the cables with just 10 per cent of the originally estimated expenditure. However, during the 2019-24 period, the number of connections fell to just to five lakh as the quality of service was poor.”

He alleged that the YSRC government mismanaged the project in ways that it fell into a debt trap of Rs 1,258 crore. Officials must restore the AP Drone Corporation, the AP Towers Corporation and the Gas Infrastructure Corporation, he said, and laid stress on completing the Real Time Governance centres and linking them with the CC camera network.