The Nara Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh has decided to revive the Amaravati Inner Ring Road project, which was previously abandoned by the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy administration due to allegations of irregularities.
According to recent government reports, the Naidu administration is re-examining the Amaravati Inner Ring Road project, which will include major towns like Tadepalli and Mangalagiri.
The 97.5 km long inner road will extend beyond the Vijayawada-East bypass road, with the alignment currently being planned. The government is also expected to revise the land acquisition policy for this project.
During the previous TDP regime, the Naidu government had proposed constructing a 180 km outer ring road, in addition to the 97.5 km inner ring road, to cover Amaravati, Vijayawada, Tadepalli, Mangalagiri, and several other towns and villages in the combined Krishna and Guntur districts.
The goal was to develop Amaravati into the capital city, along with Vijayawada, Guntur, Mangalagiri, and Tadepalli, forming a mega metropolitan area that would spur massive growth.
The planned eight-lane inner ring road, along with a four-lane service road, was estimated to cost around Rs 6,878 crore in two phases, and also included plans for walking and cycling tracks along the route.
The project was halted after Jagan came to power, with his government alleging that Naidu, his son Lokesh, business partner Lingamaneni Ramesh, and Heritage Foods had purchased large tracts of land along the proposed inner ring road to benefit from increased land values.
Jagan ordered a CID probe into the Amaravati Inner Ring Road scam and filed a criminal case against Naidu, Lokesh, and others. Naidu subsequently obtained anticipatory bail from the court, and the case remains pending.
Now that Naidu is back in power, he has revived the Amaravati Inner Ring Road project. It remains to be seen what kind of irregularities, if any, the YSRCP will identify in this revised project.