WB agreed to lend ₹15,000 cr. for Amaravati development, says Minister Narayana

World Bank to provide ₹15,000 crore loan for Amaravati development, with fresh tenders invited after old ones closed.

Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister P. Narayana said the World Bank (WB) agreed to provide a loan of ₹15,000 crore for the development of the capital city, Amaravati, and it had been targeted to complete the works in three years. 

Fresh tenders were being invited in the place of some old ones after closing the latter due to the non-completion of works, he said at a media briefing on the 39th AP-Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. 

He said tenders worth ₹41,000 crore were called in 2014-19 and works, costing approximately ₹35,000 crore, were grounded but all of it had come to a grinding halt due to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government’s three capital policy, as a consequence of which, bills were not paid to several contractors. 

The NDA government in the State had set up a technical committee comprising chief engineers on July 24 to sort out the issue of old tenders thereby paving the way for resumption of the capital works. They submitted a report containing 23 recommendations to the government on October 29. It was discussed in detail in the Monday’s meeting and approved. 

Mr. Narayana said new tenders for works, excluding the construction of the High Court (HC) and the Legislature Complex, would be invited by December 31, while those for the HC and the Legislature Complex were planned to be called by the end of January. 

He stated that the WB suggested to the State government to complete flood prevention works at the earliest. Accordingly, steps were taken for the construction of three reservoirs within the core capital area of 217 square kilometres to prevent flooding by the Kondaveeti Vagu and Palavagu, in addition to which storage reservoirs were proposed to be built at Neerukonda, Krishnayapalem, Sakhamuru and Undavalli as per the designs provided by the Netherlands-based consultants. The process of construction of the Inner and Outer Ring Roads was underway, Mr. Narayana added.

Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav, Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, Special Chief Secretary (MA&UD) A.K. Singhal, Amaravati Development Corporation CMD D. Lakshmi Parthasarathy Bhaskar and CRDA Commissioner Katamneni Bhaskar were present.