Hyderabad, Jul 24:-
Ahead of the civic elections in the State capital, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K Rosaiah on Friday reiterated in the State Assembly that the Congress Government's commitment to develop Hyderabad as a 'world-class city', by finishing the ongoing infrastructure projects and going in for new ones.
Mr Rosaiah, who presented the State budget in the Assembly for the 15th time , a record for any Finance Minister in the country, said that the State Government was expediting construction of eight-lane Access Controlled Expressways at an estimated cost of Rs 4,607 crore.
The Centre had sanctioned 268 projects costing over Rs 12,523.70 crore under various sub-components of the flagship like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) with emphasis on drinking water, sewerage, transport and integrated development of slums, including housing, infrastructure projects and solid waste management.
`The State Government had approved the ''Maulana Abul Kalam Hyderabad Sujala Sravanthi'' scheme to draw water from river Godavari in three phases for Greater Hyderabad,’ he said. He further announced that an allocation of Rs 250 crores has been earmarked for the first phase of the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 3,375 crore.
He allocated Rs 37 crore for improving the quality of water supply in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Pointing out that 1.83 lakh groups of the poor women in 7,040 slums had been organised into Self Help Groups (SHG) under 'Indira Kranthi Patham Urban' and provided a credit of Rs 843 crore during 2008-09 as bank linkages.
''This year an action plan of providing Rs 1,200 crore credit to IKP has been prepared,'' he said.
He made an allocation of Rs 3,826 crore in the budget for the Municipal Administration and Urban Development.