The Capital Region Development Authority has proposed a plan for the State Capital, Amaravati, as a ‘Zero Slum City’. In a review meeting, CRDA Principle Secretary Ajay Jain and the Commissioner Cherukuri Sridhar have presented blue print on ‘Zero Slum City’ concept to the Chief Minister, Chandra Babu Naidu.
Under the CRDA lies almost 30 villages in which it has pooled land in 27 villages. In the Capital, almost 1.50 people are living, it was estimated, and in future, as the economic development activities in education, health, tourism, commerce, domestic and service sectors are going to develop in faster pace, there are many chances to increase Slum areas as well, the Commissioner explained.
Keeping in view Slum issues, CRDA proposed Zero Slum concept from the beginning. The Chief Minister appreciated the concept and while giving nod he suggested many improvements to the concept.
“Every citizen living in the Amaravati, irrespective of social and economic status, should have minimum living area with all basic amenities. Amaravati should stand as the best living and happiest city in the world”, Naidu clarified.
He instructed them to strategise that the city must not have any slums, and appropriate housing and layouts must be planned in order to provide shelter to the local population. “CRDA, as an organization must start growing bigger, and capacity building and planning are the ways to work faster, and more efficiently”, he said.
The Chief Minister, further, suggested to establish Andhra Pradesh Inland Waterways Authority at the earliest as the State Cabinet has already approved the proposal. He directed to make a network of natural streams and canals to make Amaravati as a beautiful Inland Waterways area. He said that the waterways and state canals must be included in a network, and State Inland Waterways must also contribute to the connectivity in the state. “Special Purpose Vehicles can be introduced for this purpose. No other state capital has this advantage”, said Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Officials reported that almost 70% of the projects in Amaravati have successfully passed the tender stage, and are now in the grounding stage. Material procurement is the current focus, and the availability of all the required raw materials, gravel, hard granite metal and sand, is confirmed to be in a radius of 75% around Amaravati.
As per environment-friendly moves, fly ash will be used instead of gravel to a large extent, and will be developed in barges.
The progress on bringing the hotels is also reaching a good pace, as around 10 hotels have confirmed their developers and presence in the city. “By 2020, Amaravati will surely have 1200 rooms available across hotels”, reported Sreedhar Cherukuri, Commissioner of CRDA.
He also reported that MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) will be a hub developed under the PPP model, and will become one of the top centres of economic, cultural and business activities in the Southeast Asian region. 42 acres of land has been identified, in a plot along the banks of river Krishna, and the cost of the project will be IJ1,220 crore.
Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development P. Narayana, Principal Secretaries Ajay Jain and Satish Chandra, and Chairman & Managing Director of Amaravati Development Corporation lakshmi Parthasarathi were also present in the meeting.