Naidu restarts Amaravati works

PTI Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday restarted the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) project works here. The works at Rayapudi village in the capital region were restarted after a hiatus of five years, following the erstwhile YSRCP government abandoning Naidu's 'dream project'. Later, addressing a press conference at the CRDA office at Rayapudi village, the chief minister said that the cost of Amaravati capital city project rose by Rs 7,000 crore in the past five years to reach Rs 52,000 crore now. The tenders for 55 capital city works, which were called at Rs 42,519 crore between 2014 and 2019 got inflated by Rs 7,000 crore due the alleged interruption caused by the previous YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government between 2019 and 2024, he said.

"Because all those (capital) works got stalled, we are making new estimates. Because of their (YSRCP government's) deeds, the financial burden has increased by Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 52,000 crore. We will start the works with Rs 52,000 crore," the CM said. Naidu noted that the banks have already come forward to finance the project and thanked the Central government on behalf of all the five crore Andhra Pradesh people. According to Naidu, the World Bank and other financial institutions have come forward to lend Rs 15,000 crore as a consortium and noted that the Centre has made these funds available to the southern state. The CM said that the CRDA office could start functioning in four months' time and all regions of the state would be developed along with Amaravati.

Noting that Amaravati would be a 'self-financing' city, Naidu said some more land would be left in the 54,000 acre greenfield capital city after developing it.Calling Amaravati a 'capital of goddesses', the CM said the city will have wide roads, underground power lines and underground water pipelines through ducts.The TDP chief said that the centrally located Amaravati will emerge as a green energy hub equipped with electric vehicle charging stations, and other environmental friendly features. Highlighting that work in the greenfield capital is going apace, Naidu reminded officials that they only have three years' time to bring out a proper tangible structure to Amaravati. Moreover, the CM told PTI that he will visit the futuristic city of Neom being built in Saudi Arabia at an appropriate time to absorb some best practices being implemented there."Wherever new cities are coming up, that too greenfield cities, we will collaborate with them. They will know best practices from us, we will know best practices from them. Ultimately, we will make one of the best (capital cities)," he said. The chief minister said Municipal Minister P Narayana and CRDA commissioner K Bhaskar and other officials will watch out and make the necessary observations. Naidu took up the CRDA project office works in a seven-storey building at a cost of Rs 160 crore during his earlier tenure between 2014-2019.

However, between 2019 and 2024, former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy promoted the idea of three capital cities and kept the development of Amaravati on the back-burner.With the emergence of Naidu as the CM of the bifurcated state for the second time post 2024 polls, Amaravati capital project received a shot in the arm.