Capital dreams, Maoist hunt, spate of deadly accidents; AP saw it all in 2025

Amaravati: As the world bids adieu to 2025, a pivotal moment, the near half-way mark of the three-year timeline set by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to construct the greenfield capital city of Amaravati, passes by.

The southern state was jolted by three major temple tragedies – a stampede at Tirupati temple, wall collapse at Simhachalam temple and a railing giving away at a Kasibugga shrine, all of which claimed a total of 23 lives and injured nearly 100 people.

A Bengaluru-bound sleeper bus catching flames and burning 19 passengers to death in Kurnool district in October shocked the nation while the severe cyclonic storm Montha claimed three lives and left a trail of destruction in its path, inflicting a loss of at least Rs 5,233 crore.

Two back-to-back encounters near Maredumilli in November left 13 Maoists, including top naxalite Madvi Hidma, dead, weakening Left Wing Extremism.

The year 2026 is of immense importance to the TDP-led NDA regime to materialise Naidu's Amaravati vision as the governmet asserted it is proceeding with a definite timeframe for completing the capital city construction works, which include officials' residences in a year's time (April 2026), trunk roads (October 2026), layout roads (October 2027) and iconic buildings (April 2028).

On completing 18 months in power, the state government is entering a phase in 2026 where it has much to do in terms of giving a proper shape to Naidu's promises and visions.

As part of his broadened vision for Amaravati, the CM initiated the second phase of Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) for 16,666 acres from seven villages to supplement the existing unexhausted quantum of 54,000 pooled acres, which according to reports has not gone down well with farmers.

The Opposition YSR Congress party has been highly criticial of the state government, demanding justice to farmers who gave up land for the first phase of Amaravati capital project, before additional land is pooled for the second phase.

Naidu, ruling TDP supremo, came with a vision to create a "mega city" combining adjacent Mangalagiri, Tadepalli, Guntur and Vijayawada with Amaravati, requiring more land to supplement the 54,000 acres.

In September 2025, Naidu exuded confidence that all works taken up in Amaravati would be completed in the next three years, underscoring that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would dedicate the futuristic capital city to the country in 2028.

Unlike Hyderabad, the capital of undivided AP, Amaravati comes with the herculean challenge of building it from scratch as it is an agglomeration of fertile agrarian villages.

Completing Amaravati is also crucial for Naidu's Quantum Vision, which aims to catapult Amaravati. The capital will host the Quantum Valley as one of the world's top five quantum computing hubs.

Naidu lined up exciting plans for the Quantum Valley, which has already attracted investments worth Rs 3,000 crore and in 2026 two quantum computers from IBM are scheduled to be installed, among other initiatives.

The USD 15 billion AI Google data centre investment in Visakhapatnam, investment pledges of over Rs 13 lakh crore garnered during the CII Partnership Summit and the inauguration of Ratan Tata Innovation Hubs (RTIHs) are some of the highlights of the bygone year for Naidu, who aims to transform the state into a heavyweight of futuristic technologies, green energy and others.

Moreover, he went on to fulfil the poll promise of Talliki Vandandam (Rs 15,000 per school-going child) and Annadata Sukhibhava (Rs 20,000 per annum to eligible farmers) partially but not without complaints of pruning the number of beneficiaries.

The state government is yet to launch some of the poll promises such as offering Rs 3,000 per month to unemployed people and "Ada Bidda Nidhi" (Rs 1,500 aid per month to women between 19 and 59 years).

Naidu had to face political challenges from YSRCP chief and opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who took up public causes such as Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers, cyclone hit ryots, atrocities against Dalits, spurious liquor, unfulfilled promises, and several others, in 2025.

Reddy's campaign against the alleged privatisation of 10 government medical colleges resonated well with the public, enabling him to collect over one crore signatures against this move.