During his entire tenure, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, tried hardselling Amravati as an ideal capital city that he claimed to be the pride Andhra people and an engine of growth. However, now his dream project seems to be falling apart. As per a latest Livemint report, the Andhra Pradesh government has now set up a five-member committee, to review Amaravati and other developmental plans and suggest a comprehensive strategy to ensure all-round development of the state.
This move comes after the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), withdrew from the Amaravati project. Chandrababu Naidu wanted to establish Amaravati as an ideal capital city of the project and in fact, the TDP led by Naidu used to showcase the development of the city in a big way. Both the leading financial institutions were supposed to inject $500 million in the project. The state was to contribute an additional $200 million in the project. The state’s finance minister said, “From all accounts, it is apparent that the previous government had completely ignored the adverse environmental, social, economic and financial implications of the new capital city developmental model.” The minister added, “Moreover, the actions of the previous government have embarrassed the nation, as it is the first time that the independent panel of the World Bank recommended an investigation into a project that has not yet been approved by the World Bank board.”
It is clear that the project which was being showcased by the previous regime under Chandrababu Naidu as a massive development project which would establish Andhra Pradesh’s capital city in a different league, is at the verge of a miserable and embarrassing failure. It is now fast emerging as a living example of poor planning, neglect and inefficiency.
However, failure is not sudden or shocking. For quite some time, there were apprehensions and doubts about the project. Last year, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister had made a major blunder while speaking about Amravati. Addressing a gathering after listing the ‘Amravati bond’ on the Bombay Stock Exchange, he had claimed that his government envisioned an investment of US $2-4 trillion for developing Amravati, the greenfield capital city. It must be noted that the current GDP of India is around $ 2.6 trillion. Therefore, it was virtually impossible to attract the kind of investment that he was talking about.
Moreover, in the month of September 2018 last year, it was reported that nothing had been built in Amravati. Even basic amenities such as drainage and power lines were yet to be put in place. Initially, the plan for the new world-class capital city indeed appeared ambitious and impressive. It was being proposed that the city spread over 7,500 sq km (2,895 sq miles) area would be developed over a period of 10 years. However, till date, not much progress has taken place in this much hyped project. It was reported by Economic Times last year that the Centre had already released Rs. 1500 crore for Amravati and Rs. 500 crore each for Guntur and Vijayawada. Therefore, the failure of this project had already become certain and now the recent move by the Andhra government to set up an expert panel to review the Amaravati project only confirms its imminent failure.
Amaravati has clearly emerged as an example of monumental failure at Urban planning. It became more of a poll issue and it seems there was not much focus on how to bring the project into existence. A huge amount of investment has been already injected into this project. However, by reviewing this project, the current YSR Congress government too doesn’t seem very keen on continuing the project. Now, Amaravati is on the path to go down as one of the most poorly planned and implemented urban projects till date.