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The political face-off between Andhra Pradesh government and the Centre about special status to the State and financial assistance has an unintended consequence.
The crowd-funding initiative for building the new capital launched by the State government way back in 2015 has been attracting attention of the donors after a lull.
As per the scheme when one buys a digital brick for ₹ 10, one’s name is engraved on it and kept in a repository for ever.
Revived interest
The donor gets a certificate of commendation from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, which reads: “Every brick matters and every effort is valued. Your gesture will go a long way in realising Amaravati as a true people’s capital.”
After registering a positive response from the donors who bought about 35 lakh digital bricks within the first two weeks after the launch, the interest has slowed down.
According to the government data, in the last one month, there has been a surge in the donations after the agitation for the speical status and the ruling Telugu Desam Party’s walkout from the the NDA government at the Centre.
Over 5,000 bricks have been purchased in the last one month and the count of donors on the official portal is showing a steady increase.
As on April 27, 2018, the number of donors stood at 2,27,680 who bought 56,92,835 e-bricks
However, while interest in e-bricks may indicate a revived interest for fund mobilisation and concern over financial challenges, it will be huge task for the government to get real bricks moving for the new capital.
Big challenge
Almost after four years since the bifurcation of the State, the new capital still remains in the finalisation of the design stage.
Earlier this month, the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) had pegged the requirement of funds for construction of new capital at ₹51,000 crore.
Other options
The officials also informed the Chief Minister that ₹48,115 crore is required for the construction of the new capital and that it is estimated to go past ₹51,000 crore, considering the interest.
Various options such as rolling funding plan monetisation of lands, some part of land given by the farmers to the government under land-pooling are being explored, according to sources in CRDA.
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