“Chandrababu’s Fast-Track Clearances Trigger Concerns Over Transparency”
"Everything is as we wish"—whether it's Amaravati contracts or power projects. The approach of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu seems to be: “We'll give them to whoever we like, by any means necessary.” Recent developments over the past few months in Andhra Pradesh have even left some IAS officers shocked. They say this has never happened before. It’s always been the case that those in power show some favor to preferred companies, but this time it has reached an extreme level, according to a senior IAS officer—an indication of how serious the situation is. Now, in the past five months alone, large-scale projects with thousands of megawatts of capacity have been allocated to the companies Chinta Green Energy and Navayuga. This has now become a major topic of discussion. There is also buzz in administrative circles that two major media house ownerships are secretly backing and driving this narrative from behind the scenes.
Chinta Green Energy is a company registered in Delhi. Its directors are Navayuga Group head Chinta Vishweshwar Rao and Gaurinath Atluri. In April this year, the company received SIPB (State Investment Promotion Board) approval for power projects in two locations—claiming investments of ₹2,450 crore in Tirupati and ₹7,000 crore in Sri Sathya Sai district. At that time, the company had only been registered for just two months. Now, once again—on Thursday—at an SIPB meeting chaired by Chief Minister Chandrababu, Chinta Green Energy Private Limited was given the green signal to establish a 360 MW pumped storage project near Koppolu in Kadapa district, with an investment of ₹2,323 crore. Earlier, government orders were issued a few months ago permitting Navayuga Group companies to establish a 1,500 MW project at Gujjili and an 800 MW project near Chittamvalasa in Alluri Sitarama Raju district.
In the recently held SIPB meeting, approval was also granted to enhance the capacity of several Adani Group projects. It is already known that Adani holds both Krishnapatnam Port and Gangavaram Port in Andhra Pradesh. Now, the company is also planning to set up large-scale power projects and data centers in the state. There are growing allegations that the ruling government is heavily benefiting by awarding massive contracts and thousands of megawatts of power projects exclusively to a few selected companies. Even power department insiders say that the allocation of power projects over the past few months seems to be following a clear, pre-planned pattern.
