‘RESTORE INVESTOR CONFIDENCE AND BRAND IMAGE’: ANDHRA CM SHARES PLAN TO REBUILD AMARAVATI

Releasing a white paper on the status of Amaravati at a press conference in the state secretariat, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday vowed to rebuild Amaravati from ruins and make it a world-class capital city to boost the image of the state and bolster the confidence of the people.

The chief minister said the previous YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government abandoned Amaravati to promote his three capitals plan, which resulted in a huge loss to the state. “After 10 years since its formation, the state still does not have a capital city. Investors who had originally planned to invest in Amaravati, the proposed capital city, have lost confidence. As a result, the brand image of Andhra Pradesh has suffered.” Naidu said.

Stating that there are no fresh plans to revive Amaravati, he said his government would go by the earlier plans of reconstructing Amaravati. “We need to restart the construction activity and talk to Singapore and other countries to implement the master plan. We need to restore investor confidence, rebuild the brand image, and revive the economy. This is the only way forward,” he said.

Explaining how the Amaravati capital city project took shape during his earlier regime between 2014 and 2019, Naidu said Singapore had supported and provided assistance in planning the new capital by preparing the master plan free of cost. “International funding agencies like the World Bank, AIIB, JICA, and KfW came forward to support the project. National funding agencies like HUDCO, and PSU banks extended financial assistance,” he said.

As part of the master plan, the government took up construction of the Amaravati government complex (AGC), including state-of-the-art buildings for the state legislature, high court, and secretariat.

Stating that the total cost of the capital city project was ₹51,687 crore, the chief minister said it comprised Tier-I infrastructure consisting of city-level roads utilities, village infrastructure, and laying of power lines for ₹19,769 crore, Tier-II infrastructure consisting of last mile connectivity and development land pooling system layouts for ₹17,910 crore and construction of Amaravati government complex along with its essential infrastructure for ₹14,008.

“Tenders were called for works worth ₹41,170.78 crore, out of which all were grounded. An amount of ₹4,318.67 crore was paid to the contractors and another ₹1,268.81 crore was pending when the government changed in May 2019,” he said.

Concerning the construction of residential complexes for the state government employees, Naidu said most of them were completed to the extent of 70-80%, while the remaining were in the beginning stages when they were abandoned midway by the Jagan government.

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2024-07-04T04:05:11Z dg43tfdfdgfd