Interim Sectt: Workers race against time

​Vijayawada: The workers at the temporary Secretariat are racing against time to keep the four blocks of the complex ready for the employees to occupy from June 27. As the employees have started packing the furniture in the Hyderabad Secretariat to be shifted to Amaravati, the workers are on the double duty to keep the buildings ready.

In addition to the construction of the Secretariat building, the workforce is also busy providing electricity connection, drinking water supply and sewerage network. They are also busy developing the existing approach roads to the new Secretariat besides widening the existing road from Mandadam-Velagapudi main road to the new Secretariat building complex.

The government started construction of six blocks at Velagapudi for the temporary Secretariat. While the first block has already been occupied by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Secretariat, the sixth block is kept aside for the Assembly and Legislative Council as the government intends to hold the monsoon session in the new capital.

The first block will also house the offices of the general administration, while the sixth block will have the Assembly and Legislative Council Secretariats in the days to come. According to sources, the remaining four blocks of the Secretariat have already been allotted to the departments coming from Hyderabad.

The block adjacent to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat has been allotted to Home, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, besides key departments like Industries, Planning and Finance followed by the SC, ST, BC, Minorities, Youth, Women and Child Welfare, Cultural and Tourism departments in the third block.

The fourth block has been given to Revenue, Agriculture, Fisheries, Forests, Science and Technology, Information Technology and the fifth block for Panchayat Raj, Rural Development, Health, Water Resources, Health and Transport departments.
Meanwhile, as completion of first floor is expected to take some more time, the contractor was directed to do the partition with the plywood for the floor.

The partition work for the ground floor has already been completed with brick walls, while the internal partition for cabins is being done using glasses. However, the first floor partition work is being done using the plywood as brick walls are set to take couple of weeks time.

The total campus too is to be filled using gravel keeping in view the rainy season, while the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) is working on the laying of new roads. The officials are now planning to use the two existing roads from Vijayawada, one from Undavalli and the other from Mangalagiri, which join at Krishnayapalem and form into a 60-foot road up to Velagapudi passing through Mandadam.

These roads are to be used for transportation of the Secretariat staff from Vijayawada and the private group housing project located opposite the Acharya Nagarjuna University.

While continuing to use the existing roads, the CRDA has also planned to lay an express way from Kanakadurgamma Varadhi on the Chennai-Kolkata national highway. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to set the stone for this road on June 25, two days before the new secretariat begins the work.

By:D Gopi