Hyderabad: The central government has stopped releasing funds for pending tourism projects in Andhra Pradesh. All the tourism projects taken up by the Congress government, with the assistance of the Centre, have come to a standstill. In the last six months, the central government has released only Rs 11 crore for the tourism sector under Centre-assisted state plans scheme.
The AP government has taken up 14 tourism projects, including development of Kakinada beach, Anantapur mega tourism circuit, rural tourism projects such as Etikoppaka, Kuchipudi and others at an estimated cost of Rs 135 crore with financial assitance from the Centre. The UPA government has released Rs 41.13 crore to all the above projects. However, projects taken up as early as 2008 remain uncompleted as the NDA government stopped funding.
In such a case, the state has to spend its own funds but at present, Andhra Pradesh is reeling under crisis. The state has to spend nearly Rs 100 crore to complete the projects. In 2008, the state government has taken up integrated development of Vizianagaram-Srikaku-lam tourism project with an estimated cost of Rs 735 lakh and the previous UPA government released Rs 588 lakh till March, 2014.
In the same year, development of integrated circuit was also taken up in Chittoor district and the Centre has released Rs 227.42 lakh of the estimated cost of Rs 284.41 lakh. In 2011, the state government has taken up a project to develop infrastructure at all the tourist places at a cost of Rs 772. 5 lakh and Centre has released Rs 618 lakh.
