Yesterday Chief Minister has flagged off multi-purpose high technology network survey vehicles to create a database of all the roads maintained by the R&B Department in the state. The Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) has supplied these vehicles.

These vehicles are very special. The vehicle has high-end digital cameras in front, lenses on the back, digital laser sensors on the bumper, sensors on the tyres, CC Cameras on four sides etc.. The vehicle can easily tell how much distance it has covered, the angles of the turnings it has taken, the width of the road, crack detection etc..

Here are the features of these vehicles

1. Vehicles will be used for collection of high-quality data using Hawkeye technology
2. The vehicles have digital cameras, digital laser profilers, GPS, crack detection and data acquisition equipment.
3. The vehicles will help collect data like physical features of the road, carriage width, shoulder width, boundaries, bridges, culverts and location
4. The vehicles capture the condition of pavements, potholes on roads, cracks, edge breaks and road surface undulation, a release from the Chief Minister's Office said.

It was a flying start for the temporary secretariat works at Velagapudi with Vastu to avoid hurdles to the government towards administration.

Temporary secretariat works will be completed in seven phases by June. The state government gave preference to Vastu in the new capital Amaravati master plan preparation and now it is giving preference to vastu once again towards construction of the temporary secretariat.

The contractors started the works at Velagapudi for the establishment of temporary secretariat with land clearance, surveying and marking of the structures on Saturday. The contractors are making arrangements to conduct round-the-clock works for the swift completion of constructions.

According to engineers 13 meters long pits (100 feet) would be dug for strong pillars on which the temporary secretariat building would be constructed. The engineers are conducting soil tests to know the strength, capacity and soil variety.

According to the plan, there are six blocks in the temporary secretariat and CM's office would be in the first block on the Nairuthi direction. A direct connectivity to Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council would be provided to the CM. The Assembly and Council would be on the sixth block. All the government offices will be in second, third and fourth blocks and fifth block would be allotted to secretaries.

The precast inner pillars would be fixed in the soil for basement in the second phase, columns would be constructed in the third phase, slabs in the fourth phase, starting of first floor in firth phase, slabs to first floor in the sixth phase and final finishing and basic amenities would be done in seventh phase.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) team is surprised by the words of Krishna Collector Babu A. JICA team, led by Yasunori Takahashi before meeting CM yesterday, has met Collector and other officials to discuss about metro rail project land acquisition. They have asked to speed up the acquisition. In the interaction Collector Babu A, replied that the land acquisition for Metro Rail project will be completed in one month time. Responding to it, JICA team leader Mr. Yasunori Takahashi is surprised and asked, “How is it possible.”

The Collector explained to Mr.Takahashi that the government has framed a policy for the land acquisition and issued a GO with number 262, which facilitates smooth process for land acquisition. The government paid compensation taking the market value into consideration to the owners who lost their land in acquisition. So, the land owners are willing to give their lands, and it could be completed in a month

The craze of fancy number registration is reaching new heights. Vijayawada resident, Supervizz Professionals Limited owner Mr.Gupta, paid Rs 6.03 lakh for AP16 DH 9999 for his new Jaguar. The Car pice is estimated around Rs.2 crore. Mr.Gupta had participated in the auction with two other car owners who bid for the same number for their BMW and Benz's.

Officials said this was the second highest amount spent for a fancy number in the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Recently, a BMW owner, bid Rs. 6.40 lakh for the number AP16 DA 9999 on June 2015.

The Transport Department's auction fetched more than Rs 10 lakh on a single day, for about 77 numbers. Reservation fee of about Rs.3,16,000 and Bid Amount of Rs.7,57,745 has fetched almost 10 lakh on a single day. A new registration number series AP16 DL was launched and the department fetched approximate revenue for other 40 fancy vehicle registration numbers.