Jagan govt begins demolition of Iconic Bridge in Amaravathi!

The YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh led by Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy seems to be on a mission to finish off Amaravathi capital city as early as possible so as to shift the capital to Vizag.

The Jagan government has now started demolition of Iconic Bridge in Amaravathi that was initiated by previous TDP government led by then CM N Chandrababu Naidu to provide connectivity between Vijayawada and Amaravathi.

Naidu had on January 12, 2019 laid the foundation stone for the ‘Kuchipudi iconic bridge’. With a 170-metre-tall pylon, it was one of the many “iconic” structures planned by Naidu, who wanted to develop Amaravati as a world-class city.

The 3.2-km long six-lane bridge was intended to connect Amaravati with Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway at a cost of Rs 1,387 crore. The contract was bagged by L&T. The company had constructed platforms to construct the bridge.

However, after Jagan became CM in May 2019, he stopped all works in Amaravathi capital region. With this, the bridge works came to a halt.

But in August 2019, Jagan took a decision to scale down the project terming it as very expensive and said this would be built in a simple manner with Rs 400 crore and not as cable bridge planned across Krishna river earlier.

However, officials have now started demolishing the entire platforms giving indications that the Jagan government wants to completely scrap this project.

The AP government officials have deployed Proclainers to demolish the platforms that were set up earlier for the construction of Iconic Bridge. The demolition works are going on for the past two days.