VIJAYAWADA: With the development of housing projects, being undertaken for government officials, coming to an advanced stage and the one proposed for the public — HappyNest — set to take off shortly, the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) is in the process of developing necessary social infrastructure in the capital city. As a part of this, the authority has mooted an Entertainment and Retail Centre.
Even though the authority had earlier proposed construction of a commercial mall about six months ago, it did not take off as the prospective developers raised a red flag regarding the viability of project. To address this, the authority has reduced the scope of the mall and floated a Request For Proposal (RFP) on Thursday to identify a private developer for project execution. “Based on the inputs from the developers, we have reduced the scope of the project. We have a few players evincing interest and hope to strike a deal soon,” a senior APCRDA official explained.
As per the RFP, the project has been proposed along the Seed Access Road in seven acres. It is estimated to cost Rs 28 crore. “There will be an influx of people in the second half of 2019 as the government houses will be ready by early next year. The public housing project also will take off by then. So, the objective is to have the Entertainment and Retail Centre ready by the time people move in so that they needn’t go to Vijayawada or Guntur for shopping.
The Chief Minister is also keen on development of social infrastructure along with the administrative buildings,” an official explained. The officials are expecting the completion of construction in 18 months once the developer is on board.
The redesigned Entertainment and Retail Centre will have facilities including retail space multiplex, entertainment space, open spaces, food courts in one lakh sqft of gross floor area. The centre will be designed after the Open Mall concept, the officials said. The Open Mall concept, which is prevalent in Western countries and is fast catching up in India, is a space where the common areas are not enclosed.