With the passage of the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Bill in Assembly, the government has crossed yet another milestone in the long-drawn process of building the capital which has begun with the announcement of Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and Mangalagiri as the Capital region.
The corpus fund of Rs 1,000 crore and a revolving fund of Rs 250 crore will help the CRDA in pooling land for capital for which a provision has been made in the Bill.
Led by Special Commissioner and Vice-Chairman N. Srikanth, the CRDA will prepare a perspective plan for development of the Capital with inputs from the elaborate exercise that Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority had done for drawing its expanded master plan.
The CRDA will actually begin the process of acquiring or ‘pooling’ land for the capital while the head offices of various departments are shifted to Vijayawada and Guntur and to Acharya Nagarjuna University in a phased manner in not more than three to four months. The Bill had a detailed mention of the land pooling which is being strongly opposed by a section of farmers.
In order to not to antagonise a larger number of them, the Chief Minister himself held quite of a few rounds of negotiations in Hyderabad, and Vijayawada during his latest visit on December 13.
The CRDA will set the ball rolling for many projects, particularly the Metro Rail and the much-needed upgrading of the infrastructure in Capital region.
The movement in expansion of the airport at Gannavaram and establishment of AIIMS at Mangalagiri have added pace to the Capital development.
While the CRDA started taking shape, farmers are demanding that the government should give further clarity on what package it evolved for them and what its resettlement plans are.
This one task remains to be accomplished by the government which has so far not made any harsh statements against the farmers for obvious reasons.
