Amaravati, April 14
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Amaravati next month to re-launch the capital city works.
The Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state has already decided to invite the Prime Minister for the resumption of works for the construction of the greenfield capital city.
The ceremony is likely to be held between April 15 and 20. Officials said the state government will finalise the date after consultation with the Prime Minister's Office.
The works are likely to resume from Uddandarayunipalem, the place where the foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Modi on October 22, 2015, when the TDP was in power in the state.
Few development works were undertaken by the state government. However, the works came to a halt after the TDP lost power in 2019 as the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government headed by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to develop three state capitals.
The YSRCP government announced that Visakhapatnam will be developed as the administrative capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital, and Amaravati as legislative capital. However, no progress could be made due to strong opposition from farmers of Amaravati and various court cases.
After the TDP-led NDA stormed to power in June last year, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu decided to resume work on his dream project.
The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) on March 11 approved tenders for 59 development projects worth Rs 37,702 crore.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister Ponguru Narayana announced that the Cabinet will give its nod for the projects on March 17 and the work would commence next month.
The CRDA had earlier called tenders for 73 projects worth Rs 48,012 crore. The state government plans to spend Rs 64,721 crore under the first phase to undertake development works and provide basic amenities.
The government is mobilising Rs 31,000 crore to resume the works. It has borrowed Rs 15,000 crore from the World Bank. Another Rs 11,000 crore will be raised as a loan from HUDCO while Rs 5,000 crore will be borrowed from various banks.
Narayana said that the Amaravati capital region has an extent of 53,500 acres, including all types of land of which 30 per cent of the land will be developed green and blue.
The coalition government is confident of completing the capital development works in three years.
Chief Minister Naidu has also announced that the foundation for investments worth Rs 1 lakh crore in Amaravati will be laid within the next 45 days.
A decade ago, Naidu had envisioned Amaravati on the banks of Krishna River as a dream capital and a world-class city.
He had got the master plan for Amaravati prepared by Singapore. With nine theme cities and 27 townships, it was planned in an area of 217 square kilometres.
In what was claimed to be the biggest land pooling exercise, the government had pooled 33,000 acres of land from farmers, who were promised a share in the developed property and monetary benefits.
Designed not merely as an administrative capital but as an economic and job creating hub and tourism centre, it was planned to be developed in three phases - seed area or core capital, capital city, and capital region.
Amaravati then attracted the attention of investors from countries like Australia, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and the UK.
Naidu's grandiose plans to build the state capital required an estimated Rs.1.5 lakh crore. Works worth Rs 38,000 crore on projects like roads and state secretariat complex were launched in 2018.
The works, however, came to a grinding halt in 2019 when the YSRCP government reversed the decision of the previous TDP government and announced the three capitals policy.
- IANS