It was on October 22 in 2015 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stone for Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, amidst a lot of fanfare and massive publicity.
The Chandrababu Naidu government is learnt to have spent over Rs 25 crore just for the foundation stone laying function.
The people were given the impression that the entire area would transform into another Singapore or Manhattan within no time. But what was witnessed in the last two years was virtually nothing.
Except for an interim Secretariat and assembly blocks which leak water from the roofs when there are heavy rains, nothing has moved so far.
No constructions have come up in Amaravati area though lands have been allocated at cheaper rate to corporates, educational institutions and hospitals.
Even the so-called seed road connecting the highway to the Amaravati core capital area has not been completed, leave alone the internal roads.
Farmers, who gave away their lands for the capital under so-called land pooling system, have stopped cultivation and have become lazy.
They are just whiling away their time by taking annual monetary compensation from the government; the productivity has gone down and it only helped real estate dealers to make a big money.
Now, the designs of capital structures of Amaravati are yet to be finalised. Only after that, some construction activity will start.
May be by the time elections approach, one can see some partly-completed structures in Amaravati!
