Andhra Pradesh budget has not given enough support to the capital Amaravati construction commensurate to the publicity and talk associated with the future capital.
Finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu earmarked just Rs 1,500 crores in the 2016-17 Budget Estimates for the construction of Amaravati capital. Presenting the annual budget for 2016-17 before the Assembly on Thursday, he said the amount would be seed equity of the Government that would enable CRDA to mobilise additional financial resources required for the capital construction from the infrastructure financing institutions and the markets, in addition to the assistance of Government of India. The budget talked many things related to the capital Amaravarti like building highways to connect with other districts, conducting national games at Amaravati in 2019 etc , but failed to offer anything extra related to the progress of building of the capital.
He urged the centre to extend support for Amaravati construction with a grant of Rs 1,000 crores. Interestingly a state government which once demanded entire expenditure of the capital cost has now urged to provide just Rs 1000 crore.
It clearly shows there won’t be much progress in the construction of capital Amaravati in the near future with centre making no budgetary commitment to the capital in union budget 2016-17, and in the absence of encouraging response from the financial institutes.
So far nothing has been heard regarding the financial tie-ups for the capital construction. The government has also constituted a high level body appointing retired IAS officer Lakshmi Parthasarathi to exclusively mobilise funding for the capital. No breakthrough has been achieved so far. It is also clear from the budget that the state is not in a position to spend big amounts on the capital from its own coffers.
The finance minister said construction of the new capital city Amaravati would require about fifteen to eighteen thousand crore Rupees in the next three to four years. A massive investment is required in infrastructure, provision of essential public services and successful execution of all development and welfare program.
“Thus far, we received Rs 850 crores for the construction of Amaravati City, Rs 345 crores for Polavaram Project, and one thousand crores for the water supply and drainage projects for Vijayawada and Guntur cities,” he said. “Amaravati has become the cynosure of all eyes nationally and internationally, and of investors and other governments alike. This is due to the progress we are making and the confidence they have in our ability to develop our capital to the 21st century global standards,” he said. But, the finance minister was silent on the progress being made in identifying the master developer. He took more pride in how the state government got the master plant prepared by the Singapore agencies.
“The Government of Andhra Pradesh has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Singapore in December 2014. Accordingly, M/s Surbana International Consultants and M/s Jurong International were engaged by the Government of Singapore to prepare the Master Plan for Capital Region, Capital City and SEED Capital. These were delivered to us on time.”
The budget which praised the Amaravati as having become the cynosure cynosure of all eyes nationally and internationally, and of investors and other governments alike, put more emphasis in the listing out the goals of the master plan.
” The main goals of these plans are to: i) Create employment; ii) Attract Investments; iii) Provide Good Quality Housing; iv) Nurture Nature and Environment, and v) Flood Management; and vi) Heritage & Culture,” Yanamala said without mentioning what was being done in these areas.
The detailed Master Plan for the Capital City has been approved and notified in the District Gazette for Guntur on 23rd February 2016.
Though he talked of progress of construction of Interim Government Complex , the finance minister could not add anything new to rise hopes about the starting of the construction of Amaravati capital.