Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu said the State government was asked to identify land for building a convention centre of global standards in Vijayawada in view of its growing importance post-bifurcation.
“Construction of two to three such auditoriums in the city having a capacity of 1,000 each and development of the airport are the need of the hour,” he asserted. Addressing media persons during his inspection of the under-construction building of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) here on Sunday, Mr. Naidu said the first phase of the project, being executed by Central Public Works Department (CPWD), was expected to be completed by February 2016. SPA was going to be an iconic building in Vijayawada. The foundation was laid five years ago but it had not made much progress due to procedural delays in giving the necessary clearances, he observed.
Three ‘S’sMr. Naidu said CPWD officials were reminded of the three ‘S’s (skill, scale and speed) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been advocating for achieving rapid development. Payments would not be an issue provided the project stuck to its schedule and quality was maintained. The SPA complex is being built by Sri Krishna Shelters Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru and SVC Projects Pvt. Ltd., Visakhapatnam. It has a G+5 institutional block and a G+7 kitchen, dining and visiting faculty block coming up in about 9.65 acres near Ramesh Hospitals. Total project cost was pegged at nearly Rs. 150 crore. MPs Kesineni Srinivas (Vijayawada) and K. Haribabu (Visakhapatnam), Ministry of Urban Development Joint Secretary Praveen Prakash, Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Commissioner N. Srikanth CPWD Director General Brij Bhushan Bhatia and SPA Director N. Sridharan were among those present.
