Amaravati development: Andhra Pradesh government appeals to HC to give five years time 

Chief secretary Sameer Sharma said in an affidavit that the application for removal of timelines or extension of time was filed to avoid giving an impression that the court directions are being defied.

The Andhra Pradesh government requested the High Court to remove the timelines or extend the time granted by it for developing the trunk infrastructure in Amaravati capital city by five years without having prejudice to the option to seek legal remedies keeping in view the impossibility of complying with the court directions in the given timeframe. 

Chief secretary Sameer Sharma said in an affidavit that the application for removal of timelines or extension of time was filed to avoid giving an impression that the court directions are being defied even before the judgment dated March 3, 2022 is appropriately challenged or legal remedies worked out. 

He stated that the process of development entails the revival or restarting of contracts for various works connected with the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) which are incomplete and consequently revival agreements have to be signed with the existing contractors.

The value of contracted works were quantified at approximately Rs.42,232 crore. Most of these works were executed primarily in anticipation of loans from Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFI) but most of them did not fructify. 

Revival of these contracts require the resumption of negotiations with the MFI and the works are also partly  contingent upon the release of grants by the Central government. Both are time-consuming processes although discussions were started. 

The need for funding was also informed to the banks and the bankers mentioned that they have to consult their headquarters for taking decisions. Restarting the works in various road alignments involved lands that were mired in litigation. 

Mr. Sharma further said notwithstanding the challenges, works resumed at two sites i.e. MLC and MLAs’ and All India Services officers’ towers and works related to NGOs’, gazetted officers’ and Group-D apartments were expected to be resumed in the due course.