The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu was in London from 11-12 March 2016 to launch the Prospectus for Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati Smart City investment. The visit was packed with meetings, presentations and interactions.
At a glittering event hosted at UK India Business Council in London on 11 March, honourable Naidu presented the credentials of Andhra Pradesh and potential of Amaravati as its new capital, and has invited investors to build home away from home. The event was attended by MP and infrastructure envoy to India Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma, High Commissioner of India to the UK Mr Navtej Sarna, industrialist G.P Hinduja and several business and community leaders. The mesmerising leader has first spoken of challenges associated and has expressed confidence to make the new capital one of the leading cities in the world.
Strategically located close to Chennai, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, the new capital city Amaravati is planned as a world class smart city and presents excellent opportunities. The minister highlighted Andhra Pradesh as Sun Rise state that has the second longest coastline in India and how developing world class port infra structure leads to an increase of trade facilitation, including cruise tourism. The proven visionary projected building 6 new airports by 2020 including a mega Aerotropolis, among the four Greenfield and two Brownfield airports enabling connectivity with communities and markets. He has also highlighted that the 8th largest state in India has attracted 70 billion pounds nominal GSDP so far. He compared the demographics of Britain and the state in terms of GDP, Per capita income and urbanisation. He has drawn attention to how the state has outpaced the growth of Indian economy at 10.50% in the current year and projected a targeted growth of 15% for the next year. He underscored the potential in terms of natural resources and stressed on the state’s strong agricultural and thriving manufacturing sector with its industrial corridors, hubs, special economic zones and the land bank. He called attention to the 1.4 billion pound investment opportunities in infrastructure development in industrial corridors in terms of roads, power and industries.
As part of key achievements, he has emphasised that land pooling for building new capital Amaravati was one of the most innovative urban development plans in the country. He said that Andhra made history as the first state of India to conceive and execute a state wide architecture integrating services of all government departments. The charismatic leader referred to a 2015 World Bank Study which ranks Andhra Pradesh 2nd in the country for the ease of doing business, obtaining infrastructure related utilities and environmental procedure compliance. He brought to the fore the targeted approach for development in terms of energy, petroleum and petrochemicals, aerospace and defence, automobile and components, textiles, life sciences, food processing and mineral based industry. Having achieved zero power cuts milestone, the power surplus state offers one of the most conducive business environments in the country and would make a perfect choice for investment and infra structure building. The planned power capacity augmentation includes implementation of energy efficient initiatives and smart grid that promises power generation from wind, solar and renewable energies. His presentation highlighted extensive opportunities in tourism sector in terms of MICE, recreation, heritage and medical treatment.
He finally drew parallel to the world class education that the state has to offer and highlighted sector specific universities being set up in sports, energy, aquaculture, logistics and hospitality for upgrading skills among the youth and ensuring availability of skilled manpower.
At the end of the two day visit, a press meet was arranged at St James Taj and he outlined the discussions and outcomes, including a 1000 bed hospital to be set up soon and the adoption of smart-cities. He has interestingly revealed that he was not aware of an Amaravati section in British Museum depicting Buddhist artefacts. He has briefly touched building Venkateswara temples in various countries across the world.
He announced that an MOU would be signed between the state government of Andhra Pradesh and the London Stock Exchange on mutual cooperation for bond raising and financing for Amaravati.
He said that he had asked Canary Wharf to partner with his government to develop Amaravati. He had also made a similar request at a meeting on smart cities with 20 British entities including the Greater London Authority, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and JCB.
CM Naidu met with British Cabinet Minister Oliver Letwin, sovereign bond managers and financial investors for the exploration of development of his state capital.
When it came to concrete outcomes from the visit, his second day in London appeared to be more fruitful, however.
The Minister also revealed that the King's College Hospital, London will set up a 1,000-bed major hospital in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu added, "I visited the Indo-UK health Institute and the King's College Hospital London this morning. The King's College Hospital has agreed to set up a 1,000-bed hospital in Amaravati immediately and make it their headquarters as they plan to set up eleven hospitals in different parts of India. They will manufacture equipment necessary for the hospitals in India itself. Not only they want to set up a world-class hospital but promote Health Tourism in India. The foundation for the hospital in Amaravati will be laid in the first week of June."
He further said the new capital city aspired to become a leader in the healthcare sector and has identified healthcare as one of its focus sectors. A 'Health City of 2,585 hectares has been planned in the capital and land has been reserved throughout the city for healthcare infrastructure. A medical academy and research centres are planned in the capital, providing access to a talented workforce. "Leading institutions like AIIMS and the Indo-UK Institute of Health have already shown interest in setting up hospitals in the capital," he stated.
The chief minister expressed that he was happy that his government has set up an office for Amaravati in London. "Vijay Goel, partner Singania & Co, a leading solicitor firm here, has offered to set up the office free of cost," he said. The office will coordinate with investors and help them invest in Amaravati. He had a separate meeting with Non-Resident Telugus in the UK where the NRTs offered to adopt villages in Andhra Pradesh for their speedy development. He had also met Lord Kiran Bilimoria, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and Chairman, Cambridge Business School of Management and said that Bilimoria had promised him cooperation between AP universities and Birmingham and Cambridge universities.
When asked if the Asian Diaspora has given a firm commitment on investment, he replied, “No, I didn’t get anything, but so many people are showing interest, we are working with them on detailed special projects.”
As the CM left, he gave the only copy of his hand written speech (on St James’ Court headed notepaper) to this newspaper.
