The Andhra Pradesh Budget for 2024-25 was announced on November 11, with an allocation of Rs 11,490 crore to the Department of Municipal Administration and Urban Development. Allocations related to the Amaravati capital region, where development works had nearly stalled under the previous YSR Congress Party government, have nearly doubled this year. This is the first full-fledged budget presented by the TDP-led NDA government after it came to power in June this year. 

The previous TDP government had planned to develop Amaravati as a ‘world-class’ capital city. But the succeeding YSRCP government under former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy stalled work on the capital region, proposing three different capitals in Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool instead, with the intent of effectively shifting the power center to Vizag. With the Naidu government back in power, this time as part of the NDA alliance, the Amaravati project has been reignited. 

The Union Budget for 2024-25 promised to arrange funds worth Rs 15,000 crore to develop Amaravati as the state capital, through multilateral agencies such as the World Bank. After taking charge yet again as the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, TDP leader Ponguru Narayana said that Amaravati’s development as the state capital would be completed in two-and-a-half years. 

In the state Budget for 2024-25, the assistance for the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) has nearly doubled. This year, the allocation is Rs 1,051 crore. In comparison, the Budget Estimate in 2023-24 for the same purpose was Rs 500 crore, while the Revised Estimate for 2023-24 was Rs 791 crore. The Budget Estimate for 2022-23 was Rs 200 crore, and the Revisted Estimate (2022-23) Rs 517 crore, but the actual amount spent was only Rs 216 crore. 

Allocations for the Capital Region Social Security Fund, through which pension is provide to landless families in the capital region, also went up this year to Rs 104 crore this year. The Budgete Estimate (2023-24) for this fund was Rs 88 crore, and the Revised Estimate (2023-24) was Rs 56 crore. 

Similarly, the allocation for ‘land pooling’ also went up considerably to Rs 400 crore this year, a 66% rise from last year’s allocation of Rs 240 crore. 

The previous TDP government had pooled lands from farmers and landowners in the capital city, with the promise of giving them developed plots with urban infrastructure in exchange. In the meantime, those who gave up their lands are eligible for an annual compensation amount as per The Andhra Pradesh Capital City Land Pooling Scheme (Formulation and Implementation) Rules. 

Read: How Chandrababu Naidu’s Singapore vision for Amaravati has got him in a legal tangle

The Budget said the government is also focused on urban development in various tier-II towns and cities such as Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Guntur, Tirupati, Kurnool and others. 

“After being abandoned for five years, the dream capital city of Amaravati is taking shape. Amaravati has been envisioned to have the world's best infrastructure and a global destination of people, investments and jobs,” Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav said while presenting the Budget. 

Blaming the previous YSRCP government for stalling the Amaravati Outer Ring Road project, Keshav said, “The Central government has given its approval for revival of the 189 km long ORR expressway.”

The Andhra Pradesh police under the YSRCP government had booked Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Minister Nara Lokesh who is also Naidu’s son, and Minister Ponguru Narayana in various cases related to Amaravati, accusing them of gaining undue benefits through irregularities in the design of the capital region.  

Also read: What is the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case in which AP CID had named Naidu and Lokesh?