AP All Set For Amaravati Works Relaunch By PM

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Government is making elaborate arrangements to hold a huge meeting with five lakh people to mark the relaunching of capital development work at Amaravati at a cost of Rs65,000 crore by Prime Minister Narenda Modi on May 2.

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister P Narayana said as per the vision of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, they will relaunch the work by the Prime Minister even as the Letters of Award are being given to those who emerged as L1 bidders. The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) has finalised the bids for around Rs37,000 crore. As per the plans of the NDA coalition, the first phase of the capital city will be made operational in three years.

Larsen & Toubro has secured a tender for the Legislative Assembly building whereas NCC has been awarded the tender for construction of the AP High Court building. The Assembly building will be built at a cost of Rs617.33 crore. The HC building construction will cost Rs786 crore.

Chief Secretary K Vijayanand, after a review meeting, said a Cabinet sub-committee comprising Payyavula Keshav, Kollu Ravindra, Nadendla Manohar and P. Narayana will regularly review the arrangements to make the May 2 meeting a grand success.A 40-acre vacant land is being levelled behind the State Secretariat at Velagapudi to make it the venue for the Prime Minister's meeting. There is no confirmation whether leaders from other States will be invited for the event.

There is also speculation that CRDA has launched an exercise to acquire an additional area of 30,000 acres for construction of an international airport, Inner Ring Road (INR) and Outer Ring Road (ORR) with several road and rail connectivity projects. During the visit of 16th Finance Commission members, the Chief Minister underlined the urgent need to sanction additional funds for the capital city and provide a railway line to explore connecting it by high-speed trains with metro cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru.

AP Government has already signed an MoU with HUDCO for a loan of Rs11,000 crore. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have pledged a loan of Rs15,000 crore. The Centre recently released its share of Rs4,285 crore.