Hyderabad: Land pooling for Andhra Pradesh’s capital will commence from Tuesday. Farmers surrendering their riverfront lands will get more compensation compared to those owning lands away from the river.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday formally unveiled the land pooling policy to obtain 30,000 acre of land to construct a greenfield riverfront capital on the Vijayawada-Guntur stretch.

“Pooling of land for the capital will begin tomorrow as a majority of 22,405 farmers in 29 villages, which comprise the proposed Andhra Pradesh state capital area, are willing to part with their lands,” Mr Naidu said.

The state government will immediately release Rs 200 crore to provide debt relief of up to Rs 1.50 lakh to each farmer as a one-time settlement. To a query that not all farmers were ready to give their lands, the CM made it clear that the state government would go for land acquisition, but exuded confidence that all farmers would surrender land.

As per the new land pooling policy announced by Mr Naidu, the government has divided agricultural lands into two categories: dry lands (away from the Krishna river) and wet lands (near the river). The package has also been fixed taking into consideration the category of land i.e. patta land and assigned land.