With the breaking news of TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu becoming the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the fourth time, the property prices in Amravati too have soared, with prices shooting up to Rs 40-50,000 per sq yard from Rs 10-15,000 per sq. yard in a matter of days.
It will indeed be interesting to watch how the development of Amravati as a capital city pans out in the coming days, given its chequered past of ‘to be or not be’ the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Since 2014, when Andhra Pradesh split to form the state of Telangana, Hyderabad had been a joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In his earlier stint as chief minister, Naidu had announced Amaravati to be the future capital city, pledging an investment exceeding Rs 50,000 crore. The greenfield city spanning 217 square kilometres, began taking shape in 2015. The World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank pledged $300 mil- lion and $200 million, respectively. However, the funding went into a limbo after Chandrababu Naidu lost the 2019 assembly elections. With the YSRCP’s Jagan Mohan Reddy taking over as Chief Minister, development came to a halt, turning Amaravati into a ghost town.
After being in oblivion for nearly four years, Amravati’s revival is underway with engineers and contractors receiving instructions to restart the pending works, as per the ground reports. A top priority has been accorded to Naidu’s unfinished dream — a world-class capital at Amaravati that would rival Singapore.
The City In Making
The 2016 master plan for the capital city nestled between two of Andhra’s biggest cities, Guntur and Vijayawada, and on the banks of the Krishna River was led by a consortium of Singapore firms with Surba- na Jurong, as the master planners and lead consultants for planning, urban design, infrastructure, and industrial development. The city divided into six clusters is planned to be a completely new city with wide roads, flyovers, underpasses, an international airport. Inspired by Singapore, the ‘sustainable city’ would be connected by e-buses, water taxis, metros, and bicycles. In addition, there will be over a dozen urban plazas, all powered by renewable energy.
Real Estate On A High
Making an announcement at NDA Legislative Party meeting at Vijayawada, Chandrababu Naidu had said, “Amaravati will be the capital of our state and we will aim to develop the entire state, not just a few places.”This announcement had an immediate impact on the investors sentiments with Amravati seeing an influx of buyers for real estate. “We're seeing a huge rise in prices for both commercial and residential projects and in residential areas of Velgapudi, Kondampalem and localities near educational institutes of like VIT and Amrutha,’ said a local real estate broker. As per Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority, too, plot registrations in Amaravati have seen a notable uptick in last 2-3 months. The total number of plots registered have reached 43,669 and 21,095 plots are pending registration.
Naidu has been credited for Hyderabad’s emergence as an IT City of the world and his win has definitely boosted Amravati realtor’s confidence, reflected in the surge in land buying and the price hike. The real estate developers expect much development in the coming years, especially the infrastructure development, that had been put on hold. The realty sector also expects a revision in land ‘circle’ rates by the incoming government, which were last revised in 2022 after the formation of new districts.
The New Beginnings
The government plans to obtain about 12,000 acres of land for sale, with prices reaching Rs 30,000 per square yard and expects to gener- ate a revenue of over Rs 10 crore per acre. The process of releasing payments to the L&T and other companies is underway and real estate developers from across the state too are inspecting lands for future projects.
However, there are multiple pending litigations with the agitating farmers of Guntur district that the government will have to resolve, not to mention also garnering financial resources as the Rs 21,000 crore estimated by the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority during Naidu’s previous stint has now escalated to almost Rs 40,000 crore to build infrastructure and various government buildings in the city. The Chief Minister also has a tough task ahead managing the state’s flailing finances. In the meantime, the Naidu’s win has defi- nitely increased the value of land in Amaravati.
