BackAndhra govt reviewing plans of secretariat and assembly buildings in Amaravati
State government is reviewing both the structures along with the entire capital city projectRs8,762 crore has been spent till date on Amaravati
PremiumHYDERABAD : The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government in Andhra Pradesh is reviewing plans of the assembly and state secretariat buildings in Amaravati. The two structures, the designs of which were specifically chosen by former chief minister and TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, might witness changes, especially given that the upcoming capital city has witnessed major changes after the YSRCP came to power this year.
In an email response to Mint, AP Capital Development Regional Authority (APCRA) commissioner Lakshmi Narasimham said that the state government is reviewing both the structures along with the entire capital city project (for which an expert committee was formed in September, whose report on the matter is awaited) and also the fund mobilization (after the World Bank withdrew its funding to the project earlier this year).
The secretariat building was to be part of the government complex in Amaravati, which also includes the state assembly and the AP High Court. The entire complex was to come up in an area of 41 acres to accommodate 145 departments and enable better efficiency in work flow and interaction between different departments, Naidu had said last year while laying its foundation stone.
British architecture firm Foster and Partners was appointed as the master architect for Amaravati and the APCRDA has been tasked with building the government township. In 2017, the state government initially said that the high court would resemble a Buddhist stupa while the legislative assembly will be built after the Kohinoor diamond.
However, the idea was later junked. With the current government, led by Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewing the entire capital city project, it will be no surprise if there are any changes to both the assembly and secretariat buildings, especially after the AP government terminated the start-up area that was planned in Amaravati, which was to be developed by a Singapore consortium.
The start-up area project was to be undertaken by the Singapore Amaravati Investment Holdings (SAIH), which had last year formalized its collaboration with the AP government to jointly master-develop the start-up area with the Amaravati Development Corp. (ADC), a state government agency. The SAIH is a joint venture company that is wholly-owned by Ascendas-Singbridge Andhra Investment Holdings and Sembcorp Development India.
The ADC and SAIH were to develop the startup area over 1,700 acres within Amaravati. It was largely the brainchild of Naidu.
AP finance minister Bugganna Rajendranath, in a statement last week, said that the project was terminated “in the best interests of the state, and as it was not found feasible" and added that it involved a huge investment which did not match the proposed development.
When asked how much money was spent in total on Amaravati till date, Narasimham in his response said, “An amount of Rs8,762 crore has been spent till date. The estimated expenditure and time frame will be finalized in due course." Prior to all this, the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank also withdrew their $500 million funding for Amaravati (based on the government of India withdrawing its request to the bank for financing the capital city project).
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