VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said the State government had spent Rs 1,27,705 crore for rural and urban infrastructure development — Rs 55,000 crore in rural areas and Rs 77,000 crore in urban areas — in the past four-and-a-half years. The Panchayat Raj department has spent Rs 35,000 crore and will spend another Rs 20,000 crore.
Releasing a white paper on rural and urban infrastructure, eighth in the series of white papers in Undavalli, Naidu said CC roads were laid at a stretch of 23,553 km at a cost of Rs 5694.44 crore using MGNREGS and Finance Commission funds and added 8,000 km of CC road works were under progress.
Stating that AP tops the list in LED street lighting, the Chief Minister said 27.52 lakh LED streetlights would be installed in all village panchayats by January 2019. “So far, 21.21 lakh LED bulbs were installed. The LED street lighting was completed in East Godavari, West Godavari, Vizianagaram, Anantapur, Chittoor and Kadapa districts. The project would be completed in Srikakulam, Krishna, Kurnool, and Nellore districts by January 15, 2019, and Guntur, Prakasam and Visakhapatnam districts by January 31,” he promised. The Chief Minister also listed various other works undertaken by the government. As many as 2,071 panchayat buildings at a cost of Rs 203.38 crore and 5,565 Anganwadi centres at a cost of Rs 170.56 crore were constructed and works of 4,214 Anganwadi centres is under progress.
AP drinking water corporation has been set up at a cost of Rs 22,000 crore to supply 70 litres of purified water to each person. Purified water is being supplied in 325 fluoride-affected villages. As many as 35.64 lakh individual toilets were constructed at a cost of Rs 4,115.82 crore. AP was declared as ODF-free in July 7, 2018. A target was set to set up waste-to-energy plants in 9,000 villages by January 15, 2019, and the plants were set up in 7,813 villages so far.
Parks, gokulams and mini gokulams will be set up in villages. Rating was given to villages based on the performance and infrastructure. As many as 205 panchayats bagged 3-star rating, 2,175 panchayats 4 star, 5,772 panchayats five-star, 4,264 panchayats 6-star, 494 panchayats 7-star and eight panchayats bagged 8-star rating.
Around Rs 1,2000 crore was spent on development of rural roads. Swachha Andra and Greening corporations were also set up.
“Drinking water supply was provided in 66 municipalities and 10,15,000 houses were constructed in urban areas. The State government launched Visakha recycling water project and Eluru Smart City. Digital classrooms were set up in 594 schools,” Naidu asserted.