Andhra Pradesh gets Rs 15 billion grant for building capital

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said that the detailed plans for construction of the new capital city of the residuary state would be ready by the end of June this year and the actual works would start soon after.

Naidu’s announcement came even as the federal government allotted Rs15 billion as part of the special financial package to AP to help in construction of basic and essential facilities for the capital.

The Central assistance includes Rs10 billion to build essential amenities for the capital for which approval had been given to the Ministry of Urban Development.

The remaining Rs5 billion is to be used exclusively for the construction of Raj Bhavan (the official residence of the governor of the state) State Secretariat State Assembly and the High Court. The funds were released under Section 94(3) of the AP Reorganisation Act. Naidu who was interacting with a Singapore delegation led by Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said: “The objective is to build a city which is not just political and administrative capital but also a socio-economic and cultural capital of the state. We want to develop a capital that will be the pride of the State and envy of others. It will be a world number one city.”

The state government has roped in Singapore to assist in preparing the master plan for the capital coming up in the Vijayawada-Guntur region in south coastal Andhra.

The Singapore delegation presented a broad outline plan of the capital region to which the chief minister suggested a few modifications. The capital city master plan will be fine-tuned in the next six to eight weeks official sources said.

Meanwhile the delegation from AP gave a detailed presentation on the land pooling process and the various timelines for making the capital ready.

They explained to the Singapore delegates that the capital area would have two ring roads and several radial roads connecting various small towns to the core capital region.

Tullur in the coastal Guntur district has been selected for locating the key infrastructure of the capital city given its central location and proximity to Krishna River. The capital city will be spread on both sides of the river.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government has identified 30000 acres spread across 17 villages for creating the infrastructure for the new capital city including Secretariat and Assembly.

The government would pay Rs 25000 per acre per year for 10 years to each farmer who parted with his or her land. There would be a five per cent increase every year on the promised payment.

The government also promised to give back developed plots of 1000 square yard per acre to farmers within nine months from the date of the completion of the land pooling. Nearly 20 per cent of the 30000 acres required for building the first phase of the capital city is government land.

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