The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to set up a separate Urban Infra Development Corporation for the integrated development of Vijayawada and Guntur cities, which turned crucial after the new capital city Amaravati is coming up in between these two cities. This decision was taken at the state cabinet meeting held last evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

It was also decided to develop Eluru, Nellore, Ongole, Ananthapur and Kurnool as smart cities. The development works should be speeded up under the smart cities plan. The cabinet accepted the proposal to construct the city square complex at PWD grounds in Vijayawada city under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The cabinet has approved 185-km outer ring road and 98-km inner ring road after a long discussion.

Earlier, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has claimed that the state has registered 5 per cent more growth in comparison to all India growth rate. In a review meeting with Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and Heads of various departments, he discussed the achievements of the first half during the year 2016-17.

Though a detailed road map was laid to achieve targeted growth rate of 15.28 per cent, he deplored the target set for the first half during 2016-17 was 16.42 per cent but due to insufficient rainfall and other bifurcation issues, the state has achieved 12.23 per cent growth rate. He directed the officials to come up with action plans which are easy to execute in order to achieve the targeted growth rate of 14.41 per cent in the second half of 2016-17.

Meanwhile, the state government wrote letter to the Centre for extending deadline for cable TV digitalisation for another year. The Chief Minister requested the Centre towards relaxation when the AP Fibre Grid project is under process.