VIJAYAWADA: One year has passed without any major breakthrough in capital construction. Exactly on this day last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stone for the capital construction but even today the state government is not able to start the actual construction of the capital city. The only development in the capital is the construction of temporary secretariat building in the capital.
Though the master plan was ready even before the foundation laying ceremony, the state government failed to finalise the building designs that includes state Assembly, Secretariat, High Court and other key installations.
The government and Capital Region Development Authority could not even get a master developer and the Swiss Challenge method adopted for selecting the master developer faced severe criticism from all corners.
Funds crunch is also hitting the state government hard as the Centre is not keen on allotting funds with a free hand. In fact, the Union government has made its stand clear on capital funds and union finance minister Arun Jaitley said during the announcement of special assistance package that another Rs 1,000 crore will be given for the capital construction in addition to the already sanctioned Rs 1500 crore.
The state government, with the help of Singa-pore Consortium, has developed two draft master plans, one for the capital city and the other for capital region. Inclusion of green zones in the capital region has created flutter and the CRDA did not notify the final master plan since six months. Even in the core capital region, no work has began including the plots distribution to the farmers who gave away their lands in the land pooling scheme.
Now after one year, the government is getting prepared for another round of foundation laying ceremonies. On Friday, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced that the union finance minister will lay foundation stone for the construction of government building complex on October 28.
