Telugu Desam Party (TDP) State president K. Atchannaidu released a factbook on the Amaravati Inner Ring Road (IRR) project on October 7 (Saturday), seeking to rebut the allegation that the road alignment caused a steep rise in the value of properties owned by former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s family and former Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development P. Narayana, and their near and dear ones in the Amaravati capital region.
Addressing the media on the occasion, Mr. Atchannaidu said the basic accusation that the master plan preparation was entrusted to Surbana Jurong with a vested interest was ridiculous. As two rounds of tendering by the A.P. CRDA in 2015 had failed to attract qualified and suitable bidders, Surbana Jurong was roped in upon a recommendation by the Singapore Government, he said.
The CRDA had paid just ₹14.80 crore to Surbana Jurong for the exercise done by it. Obviously, IAS officer N. Srikant, Special Commissioner of CRDA at that time, was a part of the decision-making process, but his name figured nowhere in the CID’s findings, Mr. Atchannaidu said.
Referring to the allegation that a particular option for road alignment was chosen in spite of it being more costly than the other two available options, and that it resulted in the project cost shooting up, Mr. Atchannaidu said a 15-member team of senior officials had done a detailed study of a total of three options offered by STUP Consultants Private Ltd. and took an informed decision later, and it was not the personal choice of Mr. Naidu or Mr. Narayana.
None of the officers wrote a dissent note about it, which implied that all of them were collectively responsible for the decision taken. But the CID did not list any one of them as accused in the FIR, for reasons to be explained, the TDP leader said.
Heritage Foods land
Another thing to be clarified was that the nine acres of land owned by the Heritage Foods was situated 20 km away from Thullur and quite far from the route through which the proposed IRR passes, and even if its value increased by ₹1 crore per acre, the sale would fetch for Heritage Foods, whose market capitalisation was about ₹2,171 crore, just an additional ₹9 crore, Mr. Atchannaidu said.
He said there were some other allegations which the CID could not prove, but went hammer and tongs about them as part of the government’s vilification campaign against the former Chief Minister and others accused in the scandal.
That Mr. Naidu and others benefited to the tune of ₹2,400 crore out of the IRR project was an allegation made with mala fide intention, Mr. Atchannaidu alleged. The truth would eventually come out, he added.
TDP leaders P. Anuradha, N. Rama Naidu, B. Umamaheswara Rao, P. Ashok Babu, P. Sujatha, V. Ramaiah and K. Pattabhiram were present.
