The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to lease out flats in Amaravati built for
government employees to acquire funds for starting developmental works in the capital city in
accordance with the High Court verdict to follow the CRDA Master Plan and finish all
development works in Amaravati in the coming 6 months. The CRDA (Capital Region
Development Authority) has decided to lease out the residential towers it had built for
government employees such as IAS officers, Secretariat personnel & legislators.
This comes after the state government was left with no funds when discussions to seek a ₹3,000
crore loan from a consortium of banks broke down as the state govt. did not agree for giving
counter guarantee on top of mortgaging land in Amaravati.
In the first lot of the lease, the CRDA has now put tower D1 on lease, which has around 120
flats. The state govt. and CRDA expect to earn around ₹10 crores from the lease per year. A
senior official of the Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD) department
has said that VIT-AP University has come forward to take the tower on lease and negotiations
are ongoing, awaiting a formal order from the state govt. to complete the deal.
The tower D1 is located close to VIT-AP University campus in Amaravati. AP Chief Minister
Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has already giving the go-ahead for leasing out flats which have been
abandoned since his party came into power in 2019. The CRDA has taken up construction of 6
towers spread across an area of 7.7 acres for living quarters of Group-D state government
employees. 65% of the work was completed from 2017 to 2019 but the YSCRP govt. stalled all
developmental works after it came to power in June 2019.
The CRDA & state govt. are also selling/auctioning at least 248 acres of land acquired from
farmers for capital development purposes, to generate funds to complete development work in
Amaravati. The other towers may also be leased out depending on the response received for D1
tower which is currently being leased. The 6 towers have a total built-up area of 10,22,149 sq. ft.
and CRDA expects to generate at least ₹50-60 crore lease annual rental from these towers.
Shapoorji Pallonji, the company in charge of building the towers has asked for an extension of
deadline to complete the towers, which may not be allowed as the CRDA has decided to lease
the towers. The towers built are also only half complete with lots of work remaining. 3 banks
have already released an amount of ₹1,860 against these residential towers and will provide the
balance ₹200 crores in due course of time.
The CRDA is in a tough position as it has to repay the loans taken and also complete major
developmental works according to the given deadline. Banks have also refused to provide further
credit to CRDA as its current financial situation is quite unpredictable. The CRDA has decided
to complete the residential towers for legislators and All India Services officers and set
November 30, 2022.
