Abandoned buildings in Amaravati declared safe by IIT experts

Experts from Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) of Hyderabad and IIT Madras have declared that several multi-storeyed buildings of Amaravati, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, which were abandoned in various stages of construction during the previous YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government are structurally strong and can be restored without much hassle.
The experts’ opinion was announced by state municipal and urban development minister Ponguru Narayana on Monday. “The engineering experts from IIT Madras and Hyderabad, who had inspected the buildings in July and August, submitted their reports to the government recently, stating that the government can go ahead with the restoration work as the buildings are structurally stable,” he said.
Several under-construction multi-storeyed building accommodation for secretariat employees, government service officers, members of the state legislative assembly and council and judicial officers were abandoned during the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the last five years. Similarly, the erstwhile Telugu Desam Party government had also taken up the construction of buildings for the Amaravati government complex, including four state secretariat towers, a general administration department tower, high court and state legislative assembly.
Renowned architects from London Norman and Foster were engaged to prepare the designs for these buildings. Construction of these buildings was taken up and 10-20% of works were completed before they were abandoned by the YSRCP government.
After the TDP-led National Democratic Alliance came to power in June, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced the restoration of Amaravati as the capital city. He later invited experts from IIT Madras and Hyderabad to examine the structural stability of the abandoned buildings and give suggestions.
“The experts told the government that it can go ahead with completion of the constructions by taking certain corrective steps. So was the case with the iconic buildings of secretariat, assembly and high court buildings, which were left at the foundation stage itself. The raft foundation of these buildings is also still very strong,” he said.
The minister said that in the next two months, tenders would be called for completion of these constructions. The jungle clearance works, which came to a halt due to heavy rains, would also be completed shortly, he added.
Amaravati is not flood prone
Narayana rejected the apprehensions being raised by some Amaravati was prone to floods, as some of the areas faced inundation during the recent floods in the state. “Amaravati is in a very safe zone and I request the people not to get carried away by the false propaganda unleashed by vested interests,” he said.
However, Narayana said the government had already initiated steps to ensure that there would be no flood in the capital region in future. “We are taking up the construction of reservoirs and necessary canals to prevent any kind of floods in Amaravati in the future,” he said.
The minister said that while designing the capital region, building of reservoirs and canals was proposed. “The Krishna river received 11.43 lakh cusecs of flood flow recently, yet Amaravati faced no problems. By next monsoon, all the proposed three, canals spreading to an extent of 48.3km, will be completed as tenders are being called very soon,” he said.
Narayana said construction of three reservoirs was also being taken up across the capital region. “Once these reservoirs and canals are completed, not even a single drop of flood water will be blocked in the capital region,” he added.