Indian state Andhra Pradesh moves capital to Visakhapatnam from Amaravati
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Amaravati has been at the centre of political wrangling in the southern state for nine years.
PHOTO: ST FILE
BENGALURU - The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has chosen the coastal city of Visakhapatnam to be its new capital, effectively shelving the development of Amaravati, a city that was to be built from scratch by Singapore developers.
“Here I am, to invite you to Visakhapatnam, which is going to be our capital in the days to come,” Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Tuesday, announcing a global investor summit scheduled for March 3 and 4.
Mr Reddy did not offer a timeline, but added: “I myself will be shifting over to Visakhapatnam in the months to come.”
He currently resides in Amaravati, which has a secretariat, court, half-constructed government buildings and roads. Mr Reddy decided in 2019 to stop the development of the proposed capital city – a pet project of the previous state government – shortly after coming to power.
Amaravati has been at the centre of political wrangling in the southern state for nine years.
Singapore had been involved in the Amaravati project since 2014, when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and lost its erstwhile capital city Hyderabad to the newly created state of Telangana.
A new city was planned on the banks of the river Krishna, starting with the construction of a 684ha start-up area on the site of what was originally villages and farmland.
In 2017, the Singapore Amaravati Investment Holdings consortium was announced as the master developers for the waterfront financial centre in Amaravati. The city was conceived to eventually be 10 times the size of Singapore.
Amaravati had the backing of the state’s former chief minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, who had promised to model the city after Singapore and inked two memorandums of understanding with the consortium backed by Singapore.
Mr Naidu, the leader of the Telugu Desam Party, had devised a unique method of acquiring land from locals, called the land-pooling system. It offered farmers a developed plot in the future city as payment for their land.
However, Mr Naidu lost the state elections in April 2019 to his rival Mr Reddy, from the YSR Congress party which had long been critical of the capital project.
Shortly thereafter, in November 2019, the Reddy government and the Singapore consortium mutually consented to cancel their agreement to develop Amaravati.
At that time, the new capital was barely off the ground, largely due to changes in the masterplan because of ecological concerns and the World Bank’s withdrawal in 2018 of a promised loan of US$300 million (S$408 million), following farmers’ complaints about police intimidation by the previous government.
Mr Reddy’s party has demanded a probe into Mr Naidu’s party for alleged land scams in Amaravati. In a letter to the federal government in 2019, Mr Reddy’s government said over 1,618ha of land at the project site was bought in 2014 by people who were told in advance about the location of the new capital.
Mr Naidu has denied any wrongdoing, and instead asked why land acquired from farmers to build a new capital was being sold off by Mr Reddy’s government.
In 2020, Mr Reddy came up with plans to have three capital centres – Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool – for Andhra Pradesh. But the state High Court shot down the idea two years later, ordering the government to develop Amaravati. The state was forced to withdraw the Bill on the three capitals, but filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, which is to be heard in February.
Opposition parties said choosing Visakhapatnam as the new capital violated court orders. “How can Jagan make such an announcement when the matter is subjudice?” asked Telugu Desam Party leader Payyavula Keshav.
Communist parties criticised Mr Reddy for making the decision without consulting the state assembly. “This is the high point of Jagan’s dictatorial attitude,” said Communist Party of India state secretary K. Ramakrishna.
Often called Vizag, Visakhapatnam is the largest and most populous city in Andhra Pradesh, with two million residents. It is also one of India’s oldest port cities, facing the Bay of Bengal, and its beaches are a major domestic tourist attraction.
If the plan to make it the new state capital proceeds, it will need a new state assembly, secretariat and courts.
Nevertheless, the city is already a major shipbuilding centre, and has petrochemical, fertiliser, sugar and jute factories, and an international airport.
