Velagapudi(Amaravati): The shifting of the Secretariat begins on Wednesday in a phased manner, but the infrastructure, the one associates with a city, will take its time to be set up here. What is absent currently in Velagapudi village in Amaravati city are basic amenities, such as a proper drainage system for the Temporary Secretariat, road connectivity, parking lots and parks.
Also unavailable are walking tracks, restaurants, hotels, food courts, coffee shops, recreation centres, playgrounds and shopping malls.
Lack of an underground drainage system at the Temporary Secretariat is likely to result in the abundant barren land around it getting inundated with the contents of open drains, said Mangalagiri YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy.
No restaurants and hotels exist at the Secretariat at the moment, except for the Anna canteen, started recently for the employees. Private transport, such as autos and cabs, are also not available if one needs to go to the secretariat frequently. This will directly impact the common man, visiting the Secretariat from various parts of the state.
There are also no auto and cab stands nor parking space for private vehicles. Officials too will have to park their cars in the open space available around the complex.
Urban development minister Dr P. Narayana said that all these amenities would be in place within the time frame allotted to them. The engineers found the rain to be the main problem in completing construction of the underground drainage system.
Chief engineer B. Jaya Ram Reddy said they had dug up the soil, but the rest of the work had to be stopped, which was a total of 20 days over four spells of rain from the time they began. He said they had been constructing temporary roads and a septic tank at the block which would be occupied on Wednesday.
The underground drainage system has to be constructed up to the sewerage treatment plant at an electric sub-station, where the sewerage water can be recycled and then used for watering plants in the compound.
