Construction of Amaravathi only on paper so far

AP govt. invites fresh designs and bids

Amaravati, the capital city of Navyandhra Pradesh has remained, true to its name, on paper only. For the last couple of years, many roadblocks have delayed the actual construction of capital city.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley laid the foundation stone for the construction of financial and administrative cities in Amaravathi. But before the actual construction activity starts, the state government has to first finalise the designs for the buildings that are to come up in the administrative city.

In June 2015, CM Naidu performed a ‘bhoomi pujan’ to formally launch the works and on October 22, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the actual construction works. Since then, not a single brick has been laid for the construction of the capital, except the construction of temporary Secretariat blocks in Velagapudi.

Even though the Centre has released Rs 1,500 crore in the last two years for the construction of the Andhra Pradesh government’s new Secretariat, High Court and other buildings in the new capital, the state has not spent a single rupee so far. What more, the AP Government has been seeking the release of more funds. On the other hand, technical and bidding level works might be the delay for the construction of capital works.

Last year, the state government had approved the designs submitted by Maki and Associates of Japan for the government buildings in the capital. In June, a Singapore consortium had proposed to build the capital under the Swiss Challenge method. Based on that, the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) had also invited counter bids in August from other firms. But, it had stopped with legal troubles on Swiss Challenge Method. Finally, the state government agreed to cancel the notification and invite fresh tenders. In the meantime, the government also rejected the Maki designs for the buildings at the capital and decided to invite fresh designs by issuing a new notification. Thus the construction of capital works is back on paper and Amaravati still elusive.