VIJAYAWADA: The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat on Monday, decided to invite fresh tenders for all the works related to the development of Amaravati Capital City after cancelling all the old tenders called during 2014-19.
Except for the State Assembly and the High Court buildings, the invitation of tenders for all the remaining development works will be completed by December 31.
For the two iconic buildings of Assembly and High Court, the tender process will be completed by January 31, 2025.
The Chief Minister directed officials to complete all the works of the capital city within three years, and Amaravati should be developed as one of the top five cities in the world.
Disclosing the decisions taken at the CRDA meeting to mediapersons, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Ponguru Narayana said with the previous YSRC regime stalling all the development works in Amaravati, the TDP-led NDA government constituted a technical committee comprising chief engineers on July 24 to suggest way forward on the capital city project.
The committee submitted its report to the government on October 29, and the CRDA meeting approved all the 23 suggestions made by it for the cancellation of old tenders.
“As we cannot invite new tenders until cancelling the old tenders, the CRDA approval in this regard is crucial in taking forward the development works of Amaravati Capital City,” the Municipal Administration Minister said.
Fresh tenders may escalate work cost by 10-15%: Narayana
Mentioning that tenders worth Rs 41,000 crore related to trunk roads, Assembly and High Court buildings, bungalows of ministers and judges and quarters of officials were invited during 2014-19, and Rs 38,000 crore tenders were awarded, the MAUD Minister said the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government stalled all those works in the name of development of three capitals.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have given their consent to provide Rs 15,000 crore for Amaravati development works. The World Bank representatives have requested the State government for the early completion of flood mitigation works in Amaravati.
Accordingly, a decision was taken to construct reservoirs both within the 217 square km jurisdiction of Amaravati Capital City and outside, he explained.
As per the plan, reservoirs will be set up at Neerukonda (0.04 TMC capacity), Sakhamuru and Krishnayapalem (0.1 TMC) and a pumping unit (7,350 cusecs) at Undavalli within the 217 square km of Amaravati. When it comes to outside the capital city, besides expanding the gravity canal from Lam to Pedaparimi, a water pumping station (5,650 cusecs) will be constructed at Vaikuntapuram. Reservoirs will also be built at Lam (0.3 TMC), Pedaparimi (0.33 TMC) and Vaikuntapuram (0.17 TMC). The CRDA meeting approved all the proposals, Narayana said.
The MAUD Minister felt that there may be around 10 to 15% cost escalation for the new tenders. The government paid Rs 5,000 crore for the works awarded as per the old tenders. Another Rs 600 crore needs to be paid to contractors after analysing the works executed by them, he revealed.
Narayana made it clear that the government is not responsible for any loss of machinery or material of the contract agencies.
The bypass roads around Amaravati, the Inner Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road will be constructed as decided in the past. The Chief Minister’s capital development vision is for the next 50 to 200 years, he added.