Contrary to the expectations, the proposed temporary Capital in the new Capital region will not come cheap.
The State government few months ago favoured construction of a temporary capital with pre-fabricated structures in five lakh sft area and even finalised tenders for selecting the consultant architect for the project. in the wake of financial crunch and the government resorting to ways and means to pay for the salaries of employees and pensions, in addition to burden on debt redemption scheme to farmers, a meeting was held recently to review the progress of temporary capital.
On inquiries, it was revealed that the temporary Capital would cost around Rs.2,200 per sft while the permanent one would cost about Rs.2,800 per sft. With the difference between the two not much, a meeting of various department Secretaries felt that it might not be prudent to go for temporary Capital in the present circumstances.
While the main consideration for the temporary Capital that it would be ready by June to accommodate the offices of Head of Departments and provide accommodation to employees, officials monitoring the process said that it would not be ready so soon.
With the Singapore team promising to give the master plan by May 15 and the government being committed to complete main structures by 2018, the meeting felt that instead of constructing a temporary Capital by spending hundreds of crores, it would make sense to hire existing buildings to shift the offices of HoDs into them. A final decision, however, is left to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who so far did not give his approval for the temporary Capital proposal.
The temporary capital will cost Rs.2,200 per sft, while the same for the permanent one will be Rs.2,800 per sft.
Given the fund crunch, it’ll not be wise to build a temporary capital, feel officials
