Raipur, Apr 11: The Centre has refused any financial assistance to Chhattisgarh to construct its new capital, foundation stone for which was laid by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on March 8. "The Union urban development ministry is unable to provide any financial assistance for setting up a new capital city of Chhattisgarh," Urban Development Minister Ananth Kumar has said in a letter to Chief Minister Ajit Jogi.
There is also no provision in the ninth plan, nor a specific provision in the tenth five year plan for developing of a capital city for Chhattisgarh, Kumar further said in the letter, which was received by Jogi on April 4 and released to the media today.
Reacting to Jogi's letter of December 30, 2002, the Centre has also asked the state government to approach the planning commission in this regard. Earlier, when the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha visited Chhattisgarh, the state government had approached him for Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre for establishing the new capital, according to state urban development secretary Vivek Dhand.
A sum of Rs 7,750 crore is required in 30 years to complete the project, including Rs 3,000 crore for physical infrastructure and Rs 2,000 crore for construction of various buildings to house the important offices and residences, Dhand added.
After the completion of first stage by 2010, the new capital will accommodate 2.8 lakh people, an additional 2.8 lakh in 2020 and in the final third stage in 2030, 1.3 lakh people more would be accommodated in a planned manner, Dhand said. It also plans to have a Special Economic Zone besides having state-of-the-art infrastructure, including roads, power water and sewerage facilities and a capital complex to house state secretariat, Raj Bhawan, assembly and other important official and residential complex, Dhand said adding, currently the Capital Area Development Authority (CADA) has 6,000 acre land at its disposal. Bureau Report