VICHYANKA: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Ponguru Narayana on Wednesday began clearing jungle in Amaravati before resuming construction work in Amaravati, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

The clearance work has been allotted to Nagarjuna Constructions Company Limited (NCC) for Rs 36.5 crore. NCC will clear 23,429 acres of jungle, wild growth and weeds in a fast-track process within 30 days.

The clearing site is adjacent to the present Secretariat on N9 in Amaravati. The Minister personally operated an excavator to symbolically start the clearing of the jungle along with Tadikonda MP Tenali Sravan Kumar.

Talking to reporters, Narayana said that they had taken up works worth Rs 41,484 crore for construction of roads, buildings and other basic amenities as per the master plan. But the previous YSR Congress government completely destroyed the capital in the name of three capitals of Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Amaravati.

The minister said 58,000 acres of the capital city were in Amaravati while 24,000 acres were covered with trees and bushes like a dense forest. He stressed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had ordered immediate clearance of the jungle.

Narayana said that once the jungle clearance is completed, the farmers will know where the land allotted to them by the government is located. He pointed out that the value of the farmers’ land will increase significantly once the construction of the capital city of Amaravati is completed.