As Amaravati stirs with Naidu’s return, villagers celebrate & infra firms calculate

Amaravati: The bulldozers are back again in Amaravati. It was in June 2019, within a month of YSRCP’s Jagan Mohan Reddy taking over as the second chief minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, that the heavy machines rolled in and razed to the ground the Praja Vedika.

Built at a cost of about Rs 9 crore by the Chandrababu Naidu government as an annexe to his Krishna River front private residence at Undavalli, the Praja Vedika was serving as a conference hall etc. purposes for the Andhra Pradesh administration which moved here from Hyderabad, about 300 km away, in 2016 following separation from Telangana.

Named after an ancient place nearby with a Buddhist past, and where a famous Siva (Amaralingeswara) temple is situated, Amaravati lies on the Krishna banks, on the opposite side of Vijayawada. For his dream project, Naidu had in 2015 pooled in 33,500 acre fertile land from over 24,000 small farmers and roped in top infra majors in the country and also engaged global firms including those from Singapore.

The Praja Vedika demolition, locals say, had set into motion the destruction of a world-class capital project envisaged by Naidu to ultimately place his brainchild Amaravati among “the top three happy cities globally.”

All the works on the capital, its plan spread over a 217 sq km area, came to a grinding halt as Jagan decided to scrap the entire project altogether. Now, five years later, bulldozers have reappeared — this time to pick up work on the Greenfield capital.

With Naidu wresting power in a landslide poll victory and declaring that Amaravati will be the sole capital, AP-CRDA officials have engaged 83 JCBs which are clearing the “jungles” — overgrown thorny bushes that engulf roads, drainages and surround the almost completed structures like the residential towers for the legislators, AIS officers lying useless all these years.

Officials of the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) have been fixing the unkept lights along the seed-access roads, large stretches of which remained in dark during Jagan’s rule.

“The construction works are expected to resume based on CM’s decisions following a detailed review of the entire project soon,” a senior official told ThePrint.

At Uddandarayunipalem, one of the 29 land-pooling villages, where PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Amaravati  in October 2015, Naidu’s comeback has attracted curious visits of relatives of locals and also some government officials.

The premises — foundation stone, a yagashala, a tin roof structure with heaps of soil brought in from all parts of the country for an auspicious beginning to the construction and an experience centre built later with capital structures models — are now cleared of bushes.

A guard is on watch. Miscreants made the place their den, boozing and spoiling the structures, he says, pointing to damaged glass walls of the locked centre.

Chatting with his college-mate under the yagashala shade on a hot day, Pulipaka Sudhakar, a 27-year-old graduate from Uddandarayunipalem, says he is eagerly awaiting the capital works to resume so that he can finally implement his plan suspended for the last few years.

The scheduled caste youth wants to acquire an earth moving machine, with “earlier promised subsidy, support from the AP government and CRDA under Naidu”, and engage in civil works through contractors.

“If Amaravati takes shape as per Naidu’s vision and the TDP government succeeds in attracting major investments, I am, too, planning to move back from Hyderabad,” Pulipaka’s B.Pharmacy. course mate Burri Ramesh, working in a pharma company, says.

Festive spirit in Amravati villages

Celebrations have not stopped in the Amaravati villages, where farmers parted with their lands and livelihoods convinced by Naidu’s promise of developed 250-450 sq yard commercial and 1,000 sq yard residential plots in return of every acre of land, Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000 annuity in lieu of farm income loss and in expectation of jobs and opportunities that come along with a grand capital in their area.

Uddandarayunipalem villagers took out a procession with fireworks and distributed sweets, with a large decorative offering to the Lord Venkateshwara Swamy at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam-built temple nearby “for bringing back Naidu’s rule.” “Amaravati survived,” proclaimed banners put up with Naidu’s images.

A few km away at Thulluru, a nerve-centre of Amaravati farm agitation against Jagan’s three-capital plan, a grand feast was arranged for the entire village and visitors at the protest site of 1,631 days.

The locals, especially women, sat on a relay protest following Jagan’s December 2019 announcement of his controversial three capitals plan demoting Amaravati to only a legislative building. They relented only after watching Naidu’s TDP regain power with a tremendous verdict on 4 June.

“We suffered all this time, agitating against Jagan’s irrational plan. We are simple farmers, housewives, who faced lathi-charges, police cases just for seeking justice,” said Kamineni Govindamma, who returned from a temple, with other women after a thanks-giving pooja.

The CRDA site office at Thulluru is also witnessing some activity with change in power.

Jonnalagadda Manoj, a real estate agent at Malkapuram-Mandadam, wants Naidu to expedite Amaravati works with express speed so as the area gains a grand capital vibe in two, or two-and-half years.

“First, as a priority, the remaining 10-15 percent works on the high-rise residential buildings for legislators, IAS, IPS, and others should be completed and all these officials should be immediately moved into their designated accommodation. Next, should be the highway connectivity to Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Kolkata-Chennai corridors,” Kumar says.

Once firmly established, no force can attempt to move the capital elsewhere, Kumar, who lost heavily after his construction material supply shop at Velagapudi was shuttered, says.

Velagapudi is the village near which Naidu built a temporary assembly and secretariat and operated from till 2019. Last week, he resumed his chambers in the CM block at the secretariat.

A few kilometres away, the AP high court is also operating from well-built structures stated as temporary by Naidu then. The foundations for a permanent iconic secretariat towers and HC were laid at other spots, but remained inundated with rain waters the last five years.

Big question over funds; cost escalations

Several construction majors like the Hyderabad-based NCC were involved in the capital project. Loads of materials remain at the company yard at Lingayapalem. Gigantic water-drainage pipes lay strewn at many places along the seed access roads.

Though the AP High Court had, in March 2022, ordered the Jagan administration to resume works and develop Amaravati as the capital in six months, the YSRCP government, while not complying with the directions, went to the Supreme Court and got a stay order.

A NCC honcho reportedly met Naidu a day after he swept the polls in alliance with the JSP and the BJP. However, company officials tell ThePrint that they will wait for the new government’s plan of action before re-associating with the project.

“It’s been five years since the works were stalled; meanwhile construction costs have shot up. If and when the AP government decides to resume works and calls for contractors, we will evaluate the project based on merits as we do with any other to take a call on reassociation with Amaravati,” NCC Ltd. spokesperson Neerad Sharma says.

Apart from the charges of insider trading, acquisition of lands from gullible locals, manipulation of master plan and realignment of inner ring-roads etc deeds during the previous Naidu regime to allegedly benefit some TDP leaders, a major reason Jagan cited for withdrawing the Amaravati project was “the Rs 1.05 lakh crore expenditure required towards developing only the basic infrastructure like roads, drains and power supply here.”

Ponguru Narayana, who again assumed charge as the municipal administration and urban development minister Sunday, said the plan is to take up Amaravati development in three phases at a total cost of Rs 1 lakh crore.

The previous TDP government had approached agencies like World Bank, AIIB which were to provide $300 and $200 million funds respectively, in addition to some support from the centre. However, the World Bank, AIIB withdrew from the proposed funding in July 2019. Analysts say Naidu needs to re-engage these global agencies and few more, at the same time extract a generous funding from his support-dependent Narendra Modi government in order to swiftly realise his capital dream.

On Thursday, for the first time after re-assuming charge as CM, Naidu toured in the seed capital area to take stock of the projects.

Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu toured Thursday in seed capital area to take stock of the projects | By Special Arrangement

Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu toured Thursday in seed capital area to take stock of the projects | By Special Arrangement

Visiting the Praja-vedika demolition, capital construction inauguration site, and the unfinished residential towers, Naidu expressed dismay over Jagan’s nonchalance even as the hundreds of crores worth new structures were rotting, foundations of iconic structures flooded, and some materials were being destroyed, or looted by miscreants.

Speaking to reporters later, Naidu said that his government would soon release a white-paper on Amaravati to reveal the details, status, and the way forward.

(Edited by Tony Rai)