VIJAYAWADA: Municipal administration and urban development minister Ponguru Narayana on Wednesday started jungle clearance works in Amaravati ahead of restarting construction works for building Amaravati, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
The clearance work has been awarded to Nagarjuna Constructions Company Limited (NCC) for ₹36.5 crores. NCC will clear 23,429 acres of jungle, wild growth and weeds on a war footing within 30 days.
The site of clearance is abutting the present secretariat along the N9 road in Amaravati. The minister himself operated an earthmover to symbolically start the jungle clearance work along with Tadikonda MLA Tenali Sravan Kumar.
Speaking to mediapersons, Narayana said they have taken up works worth ₹41,484 crore for laying roads, constructing buildings and other basic facilities as per the master plan. But the previous YSR Congress government totally destroyed the capital in the name of three capitals at Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Amaravati.
The minister said 58,000 acres of the capital are within Amaravati, while 24,000 acres are covered with trees and bushes like a dense forest. He emphasised that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has ordered clearance of the jungle immediately.
Narayana said once jungle clearance is completed, farmers will be able to know where plots allotted to them by the government are. He pointed out that once construction of capital Amaravati is completed, the value of the farmers' plots will increase considerably.
