Soon after returning to power last year, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu made revival of his dream capital city project — Amaravati — the top priority of his government. Things moved quite rapidly: Loan tie-ups from international institutions including World Bank, liberal financial help from the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself gracing the event to re-launch the works.
Naidu’s dream then got bigger and more ambitious. He drew up plans for Amaravati 2.0, a second phase of the project that involved acquiring thousands of acres of additional land.
However, following resistance from villagers, opposition activists and a section of his own allies, he has decided to put the plan on hold. Instead, his government has now decided to complete the ongoing works on the capital city and fulfil the past commitments before embarking on further expansion with consent from all stakeholders.
Interestingly, the Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, an alliance partner heading Jana Sena Party, has raised objections over land acquisition for the second phase at this juncture, particularly in the face of opposition from villagers. This is the first instance of differences cropping up between the two alliance partners—the Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena.
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The decision to put on hold the process for the pooling of around 42,226 acres of additional land was taken at a cabinet meeting held recently, official sources said.
The Chief Minister, who chaired the meeting, took the feedback on the proposal from his ministerial colleagues and decided to defer it. It was decided to constitute a cabinet sub-committee to examine all aspects regarding the expansion of the project and come up with suggestions on how to bring all the stakeholders on board before undertaking the second phase.
“It was decided to keep the proposal in abeyance, as some ministers expressed apprehensions over the negative fallout of the decision,” an official of the municipal administration and urban development (MAUD) department said.
It was only July 1 that state municipal administration and urban development principal secretary Suresh Kumar issued the gazette notification on Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Land Pooling Scheme (Formulation and Implementation) Rules – 2025.
The notification was aimed at acquiring the required land from farmers belonging to 28 villages in four revenue blocks of Guntur and Palnadu districts around the present Amaravati capital region for the development of additional infrastructure projects like airport, railway lines and roads.
It was proposed to acquire 7,257 acres from the farmers under the second phase of land pooling system in Tadikonda mandal (block), 10,878 acres in Thullur mandal, 19,504 acres in Amaravati mandal and 4,586 in Pedakurapadu mandal. “The lands will be acquired from the famers after taking their written consent by conducting gram sabhas,” said Kumar.
As per the notification, the authorities would invite objections and suggestions from the stakeholders and they must verify their ownership and rights, and then submit a surrender form.
An APCRDA functionary confirmed that the conduct of gram sabhas in the villages where the land was proposed to be acquired was put on hold till further orders from the government. “It is for the government to take a call on the additional land acquisition,” the functionary said.
During the cabinet meeting, some of the ministers brought to the notice of the chief minister that the farmers were raising a lot of queries in the gram sabhas and opposing the additional land acquisition, even as the first phase of Amaravati work has just started, said the MAUD official quoted above.
“Let us first concentrate on completing the first phase of Amaravati in the next three years, which will create a positive image for the government. Till now, the farmers who gave away their lands to the first phase of the capital city project haven’t got their returnable plots and there was no visible development of infrastructure in their layouts,” a cabinet minister said.
Another minister pointed out that if the layouts in the first phase were completed and fully developed plots given to the farmers concerned, it would give some kind of assurance for the farmers in the surrounding villages. “We can then think of pooling additional land for Amaravati 2.0,” he said.
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