Amaravati would have been another Hyderabad, will rebuild its brand image: Naidu
As per the plans developed by Singapore, Amaravati would house nine cities.
By Sri Lakshmi Muttevi Published on 3 July 2024 3:05 PM GMT
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu opined that had the progress of Amaravati been continued, it would have become another Hyderabad, which is a centre for creating wealth.
He vowed to start rebuilding Amaravati, by restoring investor confidence and reconstructing its brand image, after crossing all the hurdles set in its path allegedly by the erstwhile YSRCP regime.
On Wednesday, Naidu released a white paper on the state of the greenfield capital city conceptualised during the TDP government between 2014 and 2019.
Amaravati, a pet project of Naidu is planned to be the Indiaās first planned āWorld Class Greenfield peoples Capital Cityā, being built in approximately Ac. 53,748 of area.
Explaining about the project, the CM said, "Rebuilding Amaravati has already started and the officials were given instructions. Crossing all the legal hurdles, we will go ahead. We will tell everything about Amaravati to the Centre and move in a fast and time-bound manner to execute it,".
"Had the work relating to the Amaravati project gone ahead as planned, up to one lakh people would have been residing in it by now, seven lakh jobs could have been created and Rs 10,000 crore state taxes would have been realised by the government, including wealth generation across the state," said Naidu.
He told that reconstruction of Amaravati will go ahead with the existing masterplan but will incorporate modern advancements.
Three master plans:
In his presentation, Naidu highlighted that Singapore had prepared three master plans for Amaravati, which included capital region concept master plan, capital city master plan and seed capital area detailed master plan.
As per the plans developed by Singapore, Amaravati would house a sports city, government city, tourism city, finance city, justice city, knowledge city, media city, health city and electronics city, nine in total.
Among the several reasons for choosing Amaravati as the capital city, which has a history of 2,300 years, the TDP supremo said it was due to its central location and equidistant from the three extremities of the state were some.
According to the CM, Amaravati, a self-financed project, had witnessed the largest land pooling exercise in the world, encompassing a commitment of 34,400 acres of land by 29,966 farmers.
With a total project cost of Rs 51,687 crore, Naidu said tenders were called for works worth Rs 41,171 crore and bills were paid to the tune of Rs 4,319 crore in the earlier TDP regime.
Vision of Amaravati:
The Government Complex, spread across the Government and Justice Cities was proposed to be the heart of āAmaravatiā, and the most important public node for people to relate to in the overall vision of Government City.
The Government Complex includes housing buildings for apex institutions of Legislative, Executive & Judiciary of state of Andhra Pradesh, and shall act and serve as a landmark central, grand public space of the new Government City.
Allegations on YSRCP:
He alleged that the previous YSRCP government had halted all work related to the construction of Amaravati between 2019 and 2024, leaving dues worth Rs 1,269 crore thus far.
Hitting out at his predecessor, the CM alleged the YSRCP government had done everything in its power to destroy Amaravati, withdrawing land acquisition notification for 1,197 acres and ending annuity for 2,903 farmers.
Further, he observed that welfare pensions for 4,442 families in the capital region were deprived, Norman + Foster contract was cancelled, which was the master architect for the Amaravati Government Complex (AGC).
World Bank funding cancelled:
During February 2019, negotiations were held between Government of AP and World
Bank, AIIB for a loan amount of 500 Million USD for Infrastructure development in
Capital City. Naidu accused the previous YSRCP government cancelling World Bank funding and blocked the Central government grant, among other alleged tactics to stall the project.
Due to the disruption, he said Amaravati suffered a systematic destruction in the past five years, which extended to damaged roads, unfinished buildings, negative credit rating impact on Amaravati bonds and others. As a result, the city suffered cost escalations, demobilisation of men and machinery, loss of tax revenue, material theft and several other issues.
