Residential complex for lawmakers to be ready in 9 months

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is speeding up construction of the capital city Amaravati and has launched a temporary ‘jungle clearance’ operation. The residential complexes of MLAs and MLCs are expected to be completed in nine months.

The new state government’s willingness to restart work is boosting morale in and around Amaravati, as well as boosting markets.

The AP Capital Region Development Authority, which was dormant for the last five years, was revived after the formation of the TD-led alliance government. It has started clearing the 25 designated areas.

Urban Development Minister Ponguru Narayana said that Amaravati would be built as per the original master plan with the aim of making Amarapura province one of the five largest capitals in the world. The plan was to be implemented in three phases. It is estimated that Rs 48,000 crore will be required for the work in the first phase. The first phase will complete the construction work of the city. The second phase will be devoted to the metro work.

The CRDA has carried out clearing work in 25 areas of the capital Amaravati. It has prepared estimates for carrying out further clearing work. This would require Rs 36.50 crore, and Minister Narayana would arrange the needful. The tender process will be completed in a week and this work is expected to be completed in a month.

Some 29,966 farmers from 29 villages of Amaravati offered 34,400 acres of land under the land pooling scheme proposed by the erstwhile TD government, with a provision for ‘returnable’ plots. A total of 63,410 returnable plots were offered to farmers, including 37,479 residential plots and 25,931 commercial plots.

Farmers said their salvageable plots had not been developed in the last five years. They could not identify these plots due to weed and grass growth in the developments.

Farmers of Amaravati have brought the issue of the current condition of the salvageable plots to the notice of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Following this, he directed officials to start the work of clearing the residential and commercial salvageable plots.

A total of 135 public and private organisations were allotted land in Amaravati during the previous TD term. All of them backtracked after Jagan Reddy came to power in 2019 and shelved the Amaravati capital project.

According to Minister Narayana, 45 central government offices will resume functioning in Amaravati. Some of these institutions have already started negotiations with the CRDA for handing over the land allotted to them after clearing the bushes and shrubs from the area.

The CRDA aims to complete the construction of the MLA-MLC housing complexes within the next nine months. Assembly Speaker Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu inspected the legislators’ housing complex, conducted an appraisal meeting with CRDA officials and asked them to complete the work within nine months.

Patrudu said there were 12 towers with 288 housing units for assembly and council members. About 77 per cent of the work had been completed as of 2019. Once the remaining work is completed, these apartments would be allocated to the lawmakers.