Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu releases white paper on Amaravati, says it will restore its ‘brand image’

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday said he would rebuild Amaravati after rebuilding its “brand image” and overcoming all hurdles, including legal ones, put up by the YSCRP regime.

Releasing a white paper on Amaravati on Wednesday, the prime minister said he aims to restore investors’ confidence before construction of the capital begins.

He stated that he would inform the Central about his plans for the reconstruction of Amaravati and that he would act within a specified time to implement these plans.

“We will work on the existing master plan but add more features to it,” the Telugu Desam Party chief said.

He added that Singapore has prepared three master plans for the capital, according to which it would have a total of nine regions, including a government city, a health city, a finance city, a sports city, an electronics city, a justice city, a tourism city and a knowledge city.

The chief minister said the reason for choosing Amaravati as the capital, which was earlier the capital of the Satavahana dynasty and has a history of over 2,000 years, is its location in the central part of the state.

Talking about the process of land acquisition for the construction of a greenfield capital, Naidu said it is being done through land pooling.

He said it was the world’s largest land pooling exercise, with 29,966 farmers voluntarily donating a total of 34,400 acres of land to the project. “The World Bank has presented it as a case study,” he said.

The Chief Minister informed that out of the total project cost of Rs 51,687 crore, tenders were floated for works worth Rs 41,171 crore and bills were paid to the tune of Rs 4,319 crore during the rule of the previous TDP government.

Naidu alleged that the previous YSRCP government led by former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had stopped work in Amaravati from 2019 to 2024, resulting in membership dues amounting to Rs 1,269 crore.

He further alleged that the YSRCP has done everything in its power to destroy Amaravati by withdrawing the notification of land acquisition of 1,917 acres, terminating pension payments to 2,903 farmers and cancelling social pensions of 4,442 farmers.

Naidu said farmers had been protesting against the previous government for over 1,630 days. “They (farmers) made a lot of sacrifices and we will remember that,” he said.

The chief minister alleged that the YSRCP government had cancelled a World Bank grant of $300 million and blocked a central government grant of Rs 10 billion.

He said the Jagan Mohan Reddy government had been “systematically diluting and destroying” the project, resulting in experienced, among other things, an increase in costs, demobilization of people and machines, and loss of tax revenues.

The head of government added that the government will now focus on rebuilding investor confidence and reviving the state’s economy.