AP capital blueprint provides spectacular look but doubts linger
HYDERABAD: A Singapore team led by S Iswaran, a senior minister, will submit the core area plan for Amaravati, the new capital designate of Andhra Pradesh (AP), on Monday. AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had partnered with the government of Singapore to construct a “world class capital” near Vijayawada.
AP needs to build a capital of its own as Hyderabad, the present common capital of Andhra and Telangana, will be given to Telangana in 2024. Hyderabad was the main bone of contention in the bifurcation process and Naidu, who claims credit for rebuilding the Pearl City into a Hi-Tech city, is particularly chagrined at the loss.
The blueprint images of the core capital, released by the CMO on Sunday, seem to match Naidu’s ambition of building one of the best capitals of the world. The overall master plan was handed over to Naidu by Iswaran in May.
The core capital will consist of important government offices like the Raj Bhavan, secretariat, and assembly funds, support for which has to come from the Centre as specified in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. (Till now, the Modi government has allocated ` 1,500 crore.)
For the rest of the project, like the financial district, Naidu has put his faith in the Singapore government.
However, the finer details of the agreement like the cost-benefit sharing between the state and the city-state have not been made clear. Singapore and Japanese firms are expected to participate in the project, though sources say global tenders will be floated for the purpose.
Naidu wants the first phase of the project finished by 2019, in time for the elections. The state managed to acquire about 30,000 acres of farm land along the bank of river Krishna in Guntur district for the capital, though resistance continues in some pockets.