Hyderabad: The construction of the temporary secretariat buildings will soon be complete at Velagapudi in the Amaravati capital region, but working from there is going to be fraught with difficulties. A senior official said that the shifting of the administration may therefore take some more time.
First, there is its location: the temporary secretariat, which is located quite in the interior, is 18 km from Mangalagiri, 16 km from Guntur and 30 km from Vijayawada. There are no concrete roads leading to the secretariat. This means that the rainy season, commencing at the end of June or first week of July, will turn what currently resembles a road into a sea of slush and mud where even vehicles will be hard put to ply.
The secretariat area too has no proper roads, drainage and sewerage systems. The construction of roads, which is not possible in the rainy season, will have to start in December. A senior official from the finance department, who recently visited the temporary secretariat, said that the monsoon could turn the area into an island.
AP Chief Secretary SP Tucker held a meeting recently with officials regarding the shifting of the administration when, in view of these hurdles, a senior IAS officer, looking after the shifting of the administration, told this newspaper, "If the works were completed as per plan then the administration would be shifted."
Assuming that the construction of the secretariat buildings will be completed by the end of June, the state government wants to shift the employees in three phases: about 1400 will move in June in the first phase. The buildings will be equipped with all the facilities, such as furniture, electricity and other items, by the end of July when the rains will pick up pace and shifting from Hyderabad will be difficult. Employees will admit their children in schools and will not want to shift in the middle of the academic year to the capital region.
One of the union leaders of the secretariat employees said that without proper facilities they would not budge from Hyderabad. Once they did, they would have to take residential accommodation in towns nearby, and with no proper roads, running buses too would be difficult.
Meanwhile, the CRDA has requested the state government to sanction '101 crore towards external services, such as external drainage, sewerage treatment plant, external electrical facilities, external water supply, roads, drains, parking, compound wall and others.
