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Capital’s visibility on global map essential for growth: Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority to YSRCP government

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The New Indian Express       26.10.2019

Capital’s visibility on global map essential for growth: Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority to YSRCP government

Authority revises Amaravati proposals, flags risks in downscaling scope of projects

Amravati
Amravati (Photo |EPS)
Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Even as the State government categorically stated that development of a capital city is not its priority and that it will prefer a decentralised development model for the progress of all regions, the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) has informed the government that creation of an identity for a new capital and its visibility on the global map is ‘very much essential’ for the all-round growth of the State.

While it has presented revised proposals for several key projects, including the Amaravati Government Complex, Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) layouts, and other infrastructure, it also mentioned potential risks associated with downscaling the scope of projects drastically.

“Creation of an identity for a new capital is very much essential in terms of infrastructure and visibility on the global map, which will create required impetus for the all-round growth of the State,” the authority officials observed, in a presentation made to the government.  

Even as speculation is rife that the CRDA is looking for a new premises to house both Secretariat and Heads of Department (HoD) offices, the authority suggested that the five-towered structure, for which works have already begun, could be taken up in a phased manner, based on requirement.

While it endorsed the presence of Secretariat and Heads of Departments (HoD) offices in the same place, noting that it will help in better interaction and disposal of duties, it also pointed out at potential risks if the present scope — one 50-storied tower and four 40-storied towers — is drastically reduced. “Drastic reduction of number of floors requires holistic approach and assessment of its impact...In general, for any building, future vertical extension is neither desirable nor advisable. Future extension of towers to the extent of 20 to 25 floors at a future date will not be feasible,” the presentation said, pointing out that deciding to build a few floors now and expand it vertically later will take three-fold more time that it would take to construct a building in one go.

In case it is decided at a later date not to take up future extension, the authority reasoned, there would have been huge and superfluous expenditure by then already made on the foundations, structural elements and truck service infrastructure required for entire structure. “Drastic changes in the accepted and fully developed design may not be appreciated by the lead designers who conceived them. They may totally withdraw from the project. In case of their withdrawal from the project, their conceptual/schematic design may not be utilised for further development or execution,” the authority cautioned. In case only 10-storied buildings are to be constructed, the entire floor scheme has to be redesigned, the officials said. The five-towered Secretariat was designed by Foster + Partners.

For the record, the authority suggested that three of the five towers, estimated to cost `3,132 crore, be taken up in first phase, while the other two could be taken up based on requirement.Same is the case with the LPS layouts where the scope was reduced by deferring the execution of smart infrastructure so that the cost could be brought down from `16,634 crore to `9,136 crore.

 

BMC rates itself three out of seven on cleanliness and sanitation

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 The Times of India     10.12.2018 

 

BMC rates itself three out of seven on cleanliness and sanitation

| TNN | Dec 10, 2018, 09:32 IST
Sonapur Jain Nagar Mankhurd railway station

 

 

Sonapur Jain Nagar Mankhurd railway station

 

The BMC has given itself just three out of a possible seven stars on a self-assessment of the city’s cleanliness—a requirement for the forthcoming Swachh Survekshan, according to a senior official. The selfrating is based on parameters including door-to-door garbage collection, waste segregation, presence of litter bins, user charges, grievance redressal, and cleanliness of water bodies. This assessment gets 25% weightage in the overall survey, which is carried out by the Centre (see graphic).
 
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In 2017, the city slipped 19 places to rank nationally at 29 in Swachh Survekshan. In 2018, Mumbai did better by 10 places and was also declared to be the cleanest state capital—a declaration that was called into question by activists and experts; in comparison, Navi Mumbai was ranked 9 and Pune 10.

A BMC official said preparations are on in full swing as the survey is set to be held next month. “The survey this year will carry a total of 5,000 marks as compared to 4,000 marks in Swachh Survekshan 2018. We have already begun chalking out the marks the city may score as per our current situation and where is it that we need to improve ourselves for better marking. This year, with the plastic ban having started across the state, including Mumbai, and also with an emphasis on segregation, we hope to score better. We have also started the process for the scientific closure of the Mulund dumping ground and are therefore hoping that we are able to score there as well,” the official said.

Top Comment

I give 7 star to BMC for honesty.
But yes i had to visted 7 times to BMC office to register my marriage(created unnecessary nuisance for me, the reason better known to them)
Mahendra Gupta

The survey will be conducted across the country from January 4-31 by teams from the Quality Council, which has been assigned the work by the Union ministry for housing and urban affairs.

TIMES VIEW: Mumbai has been witness to a series of citizen-driven cleanliness campaigns in recent years. That its Swachh Survekshan rank has fallen since the first instalment of the survey goes on to prove that the BMC hasn’t kept pace with Mumbaikars in its drive to keep the city clean. While its waste segregation and disposal initiatives are laudable, the civic body must pull itself up by the bootstraps on most other counts, including sanitation.
 

24x7 drinking water supply a distant dream in Ballari

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The Hindu      10.12.2018      

24x7 drinking water supply a distant dream in Ballari

The hopes of people of getting 24x7 drinking water supply has remained a distant dream. For, the work, which was taken up in January 2015 and was expected to be completed in July 2017, is still making slow progress.

The work was taken up under the North Karnataka Urban Sector Improvement Project (NKUSIP) at an estimated cost of Rs. 136 crore — Rs. 68.77 crore for the project and Rs. 67.33 crore for operation, maintenance and management services for a period of five years. The agreement was to relay 280.5 km pipeline for internal distribution, installation of meters, construction of new overhead tanks wherever necessary and providing connectivity to existing overhead tanks, covering all the 35 wards. Subsequently, keeping in view the growth of the city and also the population, the agreement was revised to lay 464.58 km pipeline leading to an increase in cost by Rs. 21.78 crore.

Though the city had huge impounding reservoirs with adequate source of water (Tungabhadra canals), the supply of drinking water has been very erratic. This was attributed to the age-old internal distribution pipelines and to overcome this, the new project was proposed.

Accordingly, the executing agency procured material and laid pipelines covering 312 km and conducted hydro test for about 250 km. Service connection was given to 24,000 houses as against 44,955 houses. At present, there are 69,159 house connections in the city.

But the progress of work has been very slow forcing the city corporation to issue notices and also extend the time to complete the works by April 2018.

But NPML Infra Ltd., which is executing the work, has failed to respond to the notices, though liquidity damage of Rs. 1.24 crore has been levied.

“To ensure that the work was completed, the agency was given one more extension of time till December 2018 but to no avail. Taking a serious view of the laxity on the part of the agency, the general body of the city corporation has decided to blacklist the agency and invite fresh tenders for completing the works,” sources have told The Hindu .

 


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