Vijayawada: 20.22 acre Swaraj Maidan land allotted for Ambedkar Memorial

Vijayawada: The Krishna district administration earmarked 20.22 acre land belonging to Public Works Department to the proposed Ambedkar Memorial in the heart of the city here. District collector Mohmmad Imtiaz instructed the irrigation department on Wednesday to hand over the land, which was originally called PWD Grounds and renamed as Swaraj Maidan in the later years, to the social welfare department. In all likelihood, the foundation stone for the Ambedkar Memorial would be laid by the end of August.

Addressing a review meeting on the memorial project at the camp office here on Wednesday, the collector said that the state government would install 125-foot Ambedkar statue, memorial building, study centre and an open theatre in the Swaraj Maidan. At present, only 10.33 acre land is vacant out of the total of 20.22 acres of land where 32 buildings are situated, including the irrigation offices, women's polytechnic college and Rythu Bazaar. All these buildings would be razed so that land could be handed over to the social welfare department.

The collector instructed the marketing department officials to shift the Rythu Bazaar which is situated in 2.16 acre to a suitable place elsewhere. The Krishnaveni Exhibition Society Women's Polytechnic which is situated in 0.25 acre has taken the land on lease and the lease period expired two years back. He said that the management of the polytechnic needs to make alternative arrangements.

The collector assured that the students of the women's polytechnic would be admitted to other polytechnic colleges in order not to lose an academic year.

He also instructed the officials to look for alternative arrangements for the quarters of the judicial officers, which is situated in 0.21 acre. The officials should also make alternative arrangements for the offices of Indian Waterways office, Raj Bhavan staff quarters, State Information Centre and others.

Joint collector Dr Madhavi Latha, municipal commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh, joint collector (welfare) K Mohan Kumar, sub-collector H M Dhayanchandra, DRO A Prasad, irrigation SE K Narasimha Murthy, social welfare D D Saraswati, irrigation EE Swaroop, marketing deputy director M Divakar Rao and others were present.