The Andhra Pradesh government has given green signal for CRDA to auction the lands in Amaravati to take up infrastructure works as per the master plan. The government set the off-set price at Rs 10 crore per acre and allowed to auction about 248 acres to pool up Rs 2,480 crore. The state government is expected to go for sale of more lands in a phased manner after seeing the response of initial round of auction.
Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy recently reviewed the developmental works proposed in the capital city region with the municipal administration department and CRDA officials. During the discussion, the officials explained about the affidavit filed in the high court promising to take up the developmental works proposed in the CRDA master plan in a phased manner. The state government had promised to take up all the works assured in the CRDA master plan following the HC verdict to implement the master plan without any deviation.
The state government had initially tried to secure loan from the consortium of banks to kick-start the developmental works that were stalled after YSRCP came into power in 2019. The government held discussions with the bankers to secure about Rs 3,000 crore to take up the first-phase works including the completion of quarters of IAS officers, legislators and secretariat staffers.
The government had also proposed to complete the infrastructure works in the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) layouts granted to the farmers who parted with their lands for the capital city. The government had to complete roads, drains and street lighting works in the LPS layouts before registration of the plots to the farmers.
Sources said that the bankers expressed their willingness to grant the loan sought by the CRDA only after taking the counter guarantee from the state government in addition to the mortgaging the lands in Amaravati. Bankers were not so enthusiastic to grant the massive amount of loan to the CRDA just by mortgaging the lands as they were apprehensive about appreciation of market values of the land in Amaravati due to the inconsistent policies of the state government.
Interestingly, the state government is reported to have refused to give counter guarantee for CRDA loan making the bankers to retreat from the project. After taking the state government’s promises to the high court, the state government had decided to sell the lands in the capital city area to launch the works.
