AP Chambers Urges Centre To Back Capital Rebuilding

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (AP Chambers) on Thursday expressed its gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for their dedication to restart the construction of Amaravati capital city and sought the Centre's full support to redeem the dream project.

AP Chambers said there is no major city like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, or Chennai in Andhra Pradesh to contribute a large percentage to the GDP of the State. Hyderabad city alone contributes $74 billion to Telangana to create surplus revenue for the State. The major economic output (2/3rd) in India is contributed by major cities.

Welcoming the restarting of the capital city work worth Rs58,000 crore, which includes the Legislative Assembly, High Court, Secretariat, other administrative buildings, trunk infrastructure, flood mitigation projects, land pooling infrastructure, and others, AP Chambers said the government has set the target of 30 months for completing these projects.

AP Chambers president Potluri Bhaskara Rao said: “The main reason for Andhra Pradesh’s deficit economy is primarily the dependence on agriculture and allied sectors, which directly and indirectly employs 62 per cent of the population with a meager contribution from the industry and service sectors."

“In order to accelerate economic growth with multiplier effect, one mega city is essential for the rapid development of Andhra Pradesh as a backbone for the State’s revenues and for the overall development of the State. Amaravati has the strategic and geographic advantage of being centrally located in Andhra Pradesh and falls between two important cities, Guntur and Vijayawada, with enormous potential to emerge as a major city,: he said. Rao said the Master Plan for Amaravati Greenfield City was already prepared by UK-based world-renowned architecture firm, Foster and Partners and they believe the capital city will emerge as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. "For the first time in the world a city is being built as a self-sufficient city. We request the Union Government to support the construction of Amaravati for the next 3 to 5 years. We recommend to the State Government to acquire an additional 30,000 acres of land on land-pooling mode to meet the future requirements of the capital city,” he stated.