The project, long a dream of N Chandrababu Naidu, newly returned chief minister of the state, had run into issues leaving it a ghost city
The Rs 15,000 crore allocation for the enhancement of Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh is aimed at revitalising the city project
Image: Vikas Chandra Pureti for Forbes India
He asked for it. And he was given exactly that. That’s the power of being an ally in coalition politics.
Ahead of the Union Budget 2024, N Chandrababu Naidu, the newly returned chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, had sought Rs 15,000 crore from the central government to build Andhra Pradesh’s new capital, Amaravati. The capital in Amaravati has long been a dream of Naidu, often credited with building Hyderabad into one of India’s tech capitals before Andhra Pradesh (AP) was split into two.
In 2014, the erstwhile state of AP was split into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with Hyderabad serving as the common capital until 2024. After this date, it would remain Telangana’s capital alone, forcing AP to scout for a new one.
Amaravati was first announced as the capital of AP in 2015, soon after Naidu became the CM following TDP’s victory in the 2014 AP state elections. The decision to make Amaravati the capital was accepted by all political parties in the state, and it only helped that Naidu was also supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre. It was the PM who laid the foundation for the new city and, over the next five years, the state government spent over Rs 10,000 crore towards building the city’s infrastructure.
But a decade since the decision to make the fertile and ancient land into its new capital city, Amaravati remains a dream on paper, having run into issues that plague many Indian cities. The lack of political willpower, shifting priorities, and political mudslinging have left it like a ghost city of sorts, with the only functional buildings being the Andhra Pradesh High Court and its legislative assembly.