Chandrapolis On The Krishna

The deadlines may seem a trifle unrealistic, but Naidu and his Amaravati vision are a work very much in progress

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Updated: 20 Jul 2016 4:53 pm

The Blueprint

The interim government complex, with a capacity to hold 4,500 employees, is spread over 45 acres. It has six buildings, four of which are being built by L&T and two by Shapoorji Pallonji. This secretariat is being built on black soil of the fertile Krishna delta. The cost is Rs 500 crore.

Andhra Pradesh has so far received Rs 1,050 crore from the Centre for building the Capital. It needs between Rs 45,000 crore-I00,000 crore overall. HUDCO has given Rs 7,500 crore; World Bank is to provide $1 billion spread over several years.

McKinsey and Company has prepared a socio-economic masterplan which predicts that the capital region of Amaravati will generate $35 billion by 2050 in terms of ITeS, electronics and other industries.

The land rates in Vijayawada are at an all-time high. One square yard of land on the Bandar Road is Rs 2 lakh, says addl commissioner, CRDA, N Srikanth.

The capital region will have 28 towns with a projected population of 1.5 lakh each. Each will be divided into four equal parts with 50 m wide roads. Najarjuna Construction has bagged the tender for laying one major arterial road.

Out of 55,000 acres meant for the capital, farmers in 1,600 acres are still resisting. Their land will be taken over by law.

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A balmy breeze from the nearby Krishna blows across empty fields in Venkatapalem, a village a few miles from Vijayawada. Part of the fertile Thullur mandal of Guntur district and earlier flush with fruit and vegetable crop, it’s now a village in waiting—for it falls in the area notified for Andhra Pradesh’s dream capital Amaravati. Resistance to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s land pooling scheme is now a mere whimper, and despite the sowing season, farmers just sit and wait for plots to be allotted to them so that they can live the urban dream.