By Desaraju Surya
AMARAVATI: The estimated cost of Amaravati capital city development has fallen by a staggering Rs 31,774 crore in the last seven years!
While the then Chandrababu Naidu government, in October 2018, projected a cost of Rs 1,09,023 crore for Amaravati development, it has now (April 2025) pegged it at Rs 77,249 crore.
A perusal of the requests put forth by the Chandrababu government to the 15th and the 16th Finance Commissions, seeking funds for capital development, revealed the huge reduction in costs.
In October 2018, the government projected a resource requirement of Rs 1,09,023 for Amaravati core city infrastructure.
The total included Rs 11,261 for government offices, Rs 7,330 for social infrastructure, Rs 70,682 crore for trunk\tier-1 infrastructure and Rs 19,750 crore for tier-2 infrastructure (land pooling scheme and others).
The government had then urged the 15th Finance Commission for a grant of Rs 37,437 crore for the development of Amaravati.
That nothing happened on the Amaravati development front since then is a known fact but now, back in power, the Chandrababu regime is seeking to put things back on track.
Accordingly, it submitted a fresh proposal to the 16th Finance Commission on April 15 stating that the infrastructure development cost of Amaravati would be Rs 77,249 crore.
The government presented an estimated budget of Rs 20,818 crore for housing and building works, Rs 23,127 crore for trunk infrastructure works, Rs 22,476 crore for LPS-infrastructure works and another Rs 10,828 crore for other critical infrastructure projects.
As the government tied-up for a loan of Rs 31,000 crore from World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Hudco and KfW (of Germany) for the capital development, the Chief Minister wanted the 16th Finance Commission to recommend a state-specific grant of Rs 47,000 crore for development of Amaravati.
Interestingly, the same Chandrababu regime projected a cost of Rs 97,762 crore for infrastructure development in Amaravati in 2018 but has now cut it down to Rs 56,431, a massive reduction of Rs 41,331 crore.
It has, however, not specified how such huge variation in cost estimates came about.
Nevertheless, Chandrababu has now sought an additional Rs 10,000 crore in grant from the Finance Commission as compared to 2018!