Space booking begins for new AP capital

Ten months after the division of the State, the upcoming capital city of the new Andhra Pradesh, Amaravathi, is attracting the attention of public and private sector entities.

While the public sector and government entities have already taken the lead in requesting the State government for land allocation in the capital coming up near Tullur in Guntur district, the corporate sector is now following suit.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which refinances banks for agriculutural and rural development disbursements, was the first bank to reorganise itself into two regional offices and is working on shifting it regional head office to Andhra Pradesh.

“We have formally requested Andhra Pradesh New Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) and have got positive response,’’ Jiji Mammen, Chief General Manager, Nabard – AP, said.

The bank wishes to shift the regional headquarters from Hyderabad to Amaravathi at the earliest. “Now that we’ve reorganised our operations into two separate regional offices, we want to move to Andhra Pradesh at the earliest, probably in a year or so,’’ Mammen said.

The State Bank of India, which has over 900 branches in Andhra Pradesh, is also in the queue. “We have requested for space in the upcoming capital. As we have a large number of branches in the State, we needs to be there,” CR Sasikumar, Chief General Manager, SBI-AP said.

The SBI is yet to create a local head office and has a common headquarters for AP and Telangana here. The bank has only 433 branches in Telangana.

According to reliable sources, about a dozen central institutions such as Reserve Bank of India are in the process of finding a place for themselves in the new capital.

Pi Datacenters is setting up a tier-4 certified Datacentre in five lakh square feet of constructed area with captive substation to supply 60 MW. The total investment in the project has been pegged at ₹600 crore.

“Though corporates have plans to invest in the new capital, they are studying the industrial policy announced a couple of days back. We expect project proposals from them in the days to come,” a senior government official said.

Meanwhile, the State government has acquired about 30,000 acres in the region. Construction work will begin some time next month.

The first phase of master plan for the capital region has been submitted by the Singapore authorities to the State government. It contains plans to develop eight urban plan areas integrated with several urban and industrial corridors.