The foundation stone laying ceremony for the new Amaravati city, the greenfield capital of Andhra Pradesh, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and other dignitaries. Uddandararayunipalem of Thullur mandal in Guntur district is the home of Navyandhrapradesh, built across a green belt which is claimed to be the largest fertile land in the country.
Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Nirmala Sitaraman, AP and Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao were among those present on the occasion. The Singapore government has prepared the master plans for the three-layered capital – seed capital, capital city and capital region.
“Delhi will be working with AP at every step to make sure the growth of capital and state takes place properly. Our government will see that AP becomes human resources capital. Our government has set up 11 national level institutions in the direction of improving human resources in AP,’’ Prime Minister said. He also added that both Telugu-states, AP and Telangana, should iron out differences and move towards development of both states and country.
Modi also promised support for the development of new state as promised in the AP Reorganisation Act which includes special assistance.
The city boasts a 17-km-long waterfront and is strategically placed between Guntur and Vijayawada. The village is located about 40 kms from Vijayawada which is the commercial hub of the state. Amidst mixed feelings of ownership and wailings by farmers who gave up their land for the capital formation, Amaravati is expected to have over 3.5 million jobs for 11 million people by 2035. The greenfield capital region is expected to cater to population of about 14 million by 2050. In the next one decade, the new capital is expected to host over four million population and 1.8 million jobs. It is expected to become a smart, green city on about 54,000 acres of 217.23 sqkm of land assembled, which is also a first time in the country such a large extent of land is pooled in a span of 60 days.
Post bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh has signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with industries for over Rs 1.2 lakh crore investments with 1.2 lakh jobs. These include 18 MoUs for investing Rs 79034 crore in all sectors such as oil refinery, electronic, automobile, cements, textile, among other industrial hub.
However, there were expectations from the AP government seeking special category status for the state. The 16-month old state has received about Rs 1,850 crore as special assistance till date from the central government. The state government has sought financial assistance to the tune of Rs 57,109 crore in the coming five years. The wish list includes Rs 20,000 crore for state capital, Rs 12,109 crore to fill revenue deficit, Rs 5000 crore for industrial parks, Rs 5,000 crore to establish institutions lost to Telangana under Schedule 9 and 10, subsidies in taxes similar to that of Uttarakhand, and funds for completion of Polavaram by 2018.