Chandrababu Naidu invites World Bank, ADB to partner in Amaravati development

Amaravati, Aug 20 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday invited the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to partner with the state government in the development of the state capital Amaravati.  

The Chief Minister met representatives of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here and discussed the state government’s vision and plans for Amaravati.

Naidu said he invited both banks to partner in this endeavour to create a futuristic capital city for Andhra Pradesh.

This was the first meeting Naidu had with the officials of the World Bank and ADB after assuming office in June. Immediately after his return as the Chief Minister after a gap of five years, Naidu decided to revive his dream project of Amaravati as the state capital. He had envisioned Amaravati on the banks of the Krishna River as a dream capital and a world-class city about a decade ago and had taken up works on a few components when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was in power between 2014 and 2019.

Naidu had got the master plan for Amaravati prepared by Singapore. With nine theme cities and 27 townships, it was planned in an area of 217 square kilometres as a world-class city. Amaravati then attracted the attention of investors from countries like Australia, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and the UK.

However, the Amaravati project had come to a grinding halt in 2019 after the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) came to power and it decided to develop three state capitals with Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital.

After the YSRCP government’s three capitals announcement, investors had pulled out of Amaravati.

The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) were the first to pull out of a project to fund Amaravati’s development. The World Bank and AIIB had committed $300 million and $200 million respectively for the project. Naidu is now trying to restore the confidence of the investors.

His plan to revive the development of Amaravati received a boost last month as the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre announced in the Union Budget that Rs 15,000 crore will be arranged during the current financial year for the development of Amaravati. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Centre will facilitate special financial support through multilateral development agencies.