AP CM reviews progress and achievements of Department of Energy, Infrastructure & Investment

Amaravathi, May 10 (KNN) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the progress and achievements of Department of Energy, Infrastructure & Investment during the two-day Collectors’s Conference.

Principal Secretary (Energy, Infrastructure & Investments) Ajay Jain, briefed the Chief Minister on the upcoming Solar Parks in Ananthapur, Kurnool and Kadapa. These solar parks will have a capacity of 4,000 MW out of which 1250 MW have been already commissioned and 1050 MW worth project is under construction.

The Chief Minister was also informed about the 160 MW solar wind hybrid project which will have a storage capacity of 40 MWH. 978 acres of space has already been identified at Ramagiri, Ananthapur and land proposals are being filed for the same.

The status of electric vehicles and their future was also discussed at length on which the Chief Minister said. “All collectors have to ensure that garbage collection vehicles also have to come under electric vehicles category. If we manage to popularise electric vehicles in two and three wheelers also, it would be a game changer and will be very cost effective in the long run. You all must also look at ways to convert existing vehicles into electric ones if possible.”

The officials informed the Chief Minister that electric vehicles will be their area of focus in the coming years. These vehicles will be promoted across public and private sectors and that the authorities will start identifying places to provide for charging infrastructure as a first step in this direction.

“In power department overall satisfaction level is 71 %. We have to focus on service standards along with the delivery mechanisms to bring that up”, the Chief Minister said.

Briefing the Chief Minister on the status of AP Fiber connections, the officials informed that a total of 2,14,100 household connections were given out across 13 districts under Phase 1.

“25,000 villages will be connected by wifi by December and we need to focus specially in that direction. The process of developing smart cities must be carried out with an aim of developing AP into a knowledge economy”, said the Chief Minister.

“We need to develop a culture where we can provide maximum services in the state. Andhra Pradesh has to develop its service sector in a way that would not just bring great name to the state but also help in generating revenue for us”, he added.

The Chief Minister was also informed that ports in AP have grown by 15% year on year from 131 MMT to 150 MMT. Specifically, the ports under AP government have increased their port areas by 24%.

Kakinada Srikakulam Pipeline is schedule to be completed by December 2019 and the Kakinada- Pulaparthi section’s construction will be starting from July 2018.Domesting PNG works have been undertaken in 17 cities/towns in 3 districts with 17016 houses registering for the same.

“The development of townships and other infrastructure must be done in a way where everything is evenly spread out across the city. The projects must not be concentrated at same place as it would lead to unaffordable prices in that area. Instead we must identify and develop infrastructure across the city is different pockets”, said the Chief Minister. (KNN/ ManneSRao)