One more road block for Amaravati

Looks like Andhra Pradesh had to cross several other hurdles before realizing the dream of World Class Capital, Amaravati. Central government had promised to de-notify Forest lands for the capital. Accordingly AP government wants the centre to de-notify 19256 hectares in CRDA limits.

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However this is going to be a huge burden for the state government. According to the law, to de-notify Forest lands, the concerned state government will have to pat the Net Present Value (NPV) for the land as well as the cost to plantation in the new area. This is in addition to the equal amount of land for creating the same green cover in some other place.

NPV for forest lands in CRDA limits is 7 Lakhs per hectare and 3 Lakhs for plantation. Which means each hectare will be costing 10 Lakh and the total will come up to 2000 Crore. Cash strapped AP could not afford this at any cost. Center will have to relax norms for this to materialize. The state government as last alternative is planning to denotify the required land in phases so that the amount need not be paid at one go.