AP CM reviews infrastructure projects

Vijayawada, Nov 16 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu held a review on the status of the infrastructure projects in the state with officials from energy, infrastructure and investment departments.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that 10 waste-to-Energy plants are being set up in the state. Out of which 7 plants will be completed by October 2017 and the rest 3 plants will be completed by March 2018.

Piped Natural Gas connections to households in Kovvur and Rajamundry will commence from next month and in Bhimavaram, Eluru from June, 2017.

By 2018-19, a total of 4 thousand MW of solar power generation is envisaged through 3 solar power plants in Anantapur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts. For this year, the target is to generate 1,250 MW of solar power.

The first phase of ultra mega solar park with 250 MW has been commissioned for a tariff price of Rs 5.96/ unit informed the officials. Ultra mega solar park produces 1500 MW upon completion.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that the 1000 MW ultra mega solar park in Kurnool will be the largest solar park in one location.

Reviewing the progress of the thermal plants, the officials informed the Chief Minister that works have commenced at AP GENCO Thermal Plant at Vijayawada and at AP GENCO Thermal Plant at Krishnapatnam and the works of the NTPC 4000 MW Ultra Super Critical Plant at Pudimadaka will be taken up after grant of coal linkage.

Besides this, the Chief Minister also reviewed the fiber grid progress and the officials informed the Chief Minister that one Lakh CPE boxes were ordered on 22nd October 2016 and that they would be delivered by 10th December 2016. Another 9 Lakh CPE boxes will be ordered shortly.

The officials said that 23, 000 Km of fiber grid cable is laid and that 2445 Points of Presence locations have already been set up. A network operation is established in Vishakhapatnam to control and administer the network operations.

The officials mentioned that talks with all important satellite broadcasters has been completed and that points of interconnect are to be finalised. 13000 MSO's and LCO's are registered as business partners informed officials to the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister stressed that digital classrooms should be pushed in a big way and said that the content for it should be prepared by the teachers.

The government plans to establish energy and logistics universities in the state. The proposed energy university will be established as a central university in 500 acres of land.

The logistics university in Kakinada will come up with an estimated amount of 200 crore in an area of 90 acres of land. The Chief Minister ordered that the logistics university should start conducting classes by next year.

The Chief Minister said that AP should be made into a petroleum hydro carbon hub.

The officials informed the Chief Minister about the performance of the airports and the passenger traffic.

The airports of Tirupati, Rajamundry,Vishakapatanam, Vijayawada and Kadapa registered a growth rate of 44 % from April to October 2016. Highest passenger traffic was seen in Visakhapatanam airport with over 1,322,538 people visiting the airport.

Expansion of Tirupati, Rajamundry and Vijayawada are going simultaneously informed the officials to the CM. Officials informed the Chief Minister that they are working out all required sanctions for getting international status to the Tirupati airport.

Almost 82 % of land is under possession for the Bhogapuram green fields airport and as and when the environmental clearance is complete it will be submitted to the PCB by 1st week of December 2016. GMR group, GVK group, Adani ports, Essel infra, Tata and AAI are bidders who are interested. The Chief Minister said that the Bhogapuram airport should be one among the top 10 greenfeild airports.

For the Dagadarthi airport, Orvakal, Donakonda and Nagarjuna Sagar land is acquisition is under progress informed the officials.

The Chief Minister said that the proposed convention center at Vishakhapatnam should be built facing the sea and the beach corridor from Bhogapuram to Bheemili should be the best one.

The entire stretch from Bhogapuram to Bheemili should be beautified with world class infrastructure. Food parks, malls and public amenities should also be developed the Chief Minister said.

The officials also informed the Chief Minister about the ports performance and Vishakapatanam port grew at 9 % from April to October 2016.

The Chief Minister suggested that a separate website should be created for updating real time information of all the infrastructure projects. The website should also have key milestones updated he added.

In the next infrastructure review, the Chief Minister would monitor all the infrastructure projects through CCTV cameras