Government decides to extend annuity to farmers for another 5 yrs

Vijayawada : Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) meeting headed by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu took key decisions to ensure rapid progress in capital development works.

The Chief Minister conducted a review meeting with the CRDA officials at the Secretariat on Friday.

Giving details of the meeting, Minister for Municipal Administration P Narayana said that the CRDA under the directions of the Chief Minister has decided to extend the payment of annuity to farmers who donated their land to Amaravati capital development and pensions being paid to farm workers to another five years.

The Minister said that the CRDA meeting decided to restore the CRDA region limits to 8,352.69 square km as decided earlier as the previous YSRCP government reduced the CRDA limits to 6,993.24 sq km. However, the Palnadu and Bapatla development authorities will be continued.

The Minister said the capital city area will be 217 sq km as decided earlier in which infrastructure will be developed. It may be noted that the YSRCP government removed four villages from CRDA and merged them in Mangalagiri municipality.

The Minister said that the meeting decided to fill all the 778 posts in CRDA as the YSRCP government reduced the employees’ strength to 249. Of the total 47 consultants appointed earlier, 32 consultants will be appointed again.

He said that the Chief Minister directed the CRDA officials to discuss with the Singapore agency again for development of capital region as the YSRCP government cancelled the agreement singed earlier.

The Minister said that IIT Hyderabad experts team visited capital region on Friday and inspected the existing structures. He said IIT Chennai experts team will visit capital region on Saturday and inspect the iconic building foundations.

The Minister said that the Krishna river bund road will be widened as four-lane road with central divider. The Chief Minister directed the officials to call for tenders to complete the works as early as possible. It may be noted that the YSRCP government decided to develop it as two-lane road instead of four-lane road. Referring to connectivity, the Minister said that officials are discussing with farmers to complete the extension of seed access road.

Narayana said four roads proposed in the capital region including E-5, E-11, E-13 and E-15 will connect the capital to national highways. In addition the capital region will get connectivity with national highway. He said six bridges were proposed on Krishna river along with inner and outer ring roads.

He said the Chief Minister insisted on restarting the Happy Nest housing project which received tremendous response but the YSRCP government shelved the project.