VIJAYAWADA: A day after the State government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to decide the fate of unfinished projects in Amaravati, CS Aditya Nath Das chaired its first meeting on Friday in which it was decided to complete the projects, which achieved 75 per cent progress.
The CS directed the Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Authority (AMRDA) to hold talks with the executing and financial agencies engaged for other unfinished projects and submit their details so that the committee could decide on how to take them forward in the next meeting in the first week of March.
As per the information, only some packages of a few projects such as seed access road, MLA/MLC and All India Services (AIS) officials’ residential infrastructure have achieved 70 to 75 per cent of progress, while all others, including the land pooling scheme (LPS) returnable plot layouts, Amaravati Government Complex (AGC), Secretariat Towers and trunk infrastructure, achieved less than 75 per cent.
For the record, the government has been assuring the farmers of the capital region, who have been protesting for over a year opposing the relocation of executive seat to Visakhapatnam, that the LPS infrastructure will be developed as promised. However, the LPS infrastructure is still in preliminary stages with less than 10 to 15 per cent of progress.
“The CS has reviewed the status of various projects in the meeting and directed the officials to immediately complete the projects, which achieved 75 per cent progress. The AMRDA officials have been asked to discuss with bankers and contractors for the particulars of the remaining projects so that a decision can be taken in the next meeting,” a statement issued by the government said.
The CS also told the officials to visit Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir to study the facilities and housing in their respective capital cities. It may be noted that a total of 62 projects with an estimated cost of `52,837 crore were proposed by the previous TDP regime. Of them, works to the tune of `41,678 crore have been tendered and “grounded”. However, the expenditure made on the projects stood at `5,674 crore only.
Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration and Urban Development) Y Srilakshmi informed the nine-member committee the details of various projects taken up in the AMRDA limits. Talking about the multi-storey buildings taken up for MLAs/MLCs, officials and staff, she said another `2,112 crore would be required to complete the pending works, besides `302 crore to clear the pending bills. She also made a presentation on the status of other projects and their financial particulars.