Two buildings. Two hundred and six crore rupees. And not a single brick laid, not a single courtroom furnished, and not a single assembly session held. ₹206.59 crore is the amount the Andhra Pradesh government under the TDP has now cleared merely for the design of the new High Court and Legislative Assembly complex in Amaravati.
But the size of the number is only half the story. The real indictment lies in how the money was spent and what it reveals about the government’s sense of urgency and fairness.
The same design package was first awarded in 2016 through a global tender. It was later cancelled. In 2025 the work was revived and handed to the London-based firm Foster + Partners for ₹136.90 crore. The overall consultancy envelope has since been revised upward to ₹206.59 crore. Along the way, tender conditions were reportedly relaxed. A cancelled contract revived years later with altered terms inevitably raises a basic question: was the process genuinely competitive, or was the outcome decided first and the paperwork adjusted to fit?
The cost escalation itself tells its own story. The bill has climbed from an earlier figure of around ₹87.86 crore. Official explanations point to an increase in the number of High Court courtrooms (from 40 to 52), expansion of built-up area, and the appreciation of the British Pound. Currency fluctuation is an external factor no government controls. The other two reasons are not. Both the additional courtrooms and the larger built-up area were conscious design decisions taken by the client—the state government. When a consultant is paid a percentage of the scope, every expansion of that scope automatically increases the fee. The rising bill is therefore not merely an accounting entry; it is evidence of how loosely the government held the line on cost.
This expenditure does not exist in a vacuum. In the same period the TDP government has told citizens it cannot expand pension coverage, cannot step in when tomato prices crash to ₹2 a kilo, and cannot ensure that 23,000 Samagra Shiksha workers receive their salaries on time. Against that backdrop of claimed fiscal constraint, a ₹206-crore payment for architectural drawings is not just large; it is a clear statement of priorities. Landmark buildings for the capital are being treated as non-negotiable. Timely wages for education workers and relief for distressed farmers are treated as optional.
Defenders of the decision will point out that Amaravati is a greenfield capital, that a High Court and Assembly are once-in-a-generation public buildings, and that Foster + Partners is one of the world’s most prestigious architectural firms. All of that is true. Prestige, however, does not suspend the ordinary rules of public procurement. It does not explain why a cancelled 2016 award was revived instead of being freshly and transparently re-tendered. It does not explain which conditions were relaxed and on whose recommendation. And it does not explain who authorized successive increases in scope that directly enlarged the consultant’s fee.
When a government that claims empty coffers for everyday needs finds hundreds of crores for design fees, citizens are entitled to demand a full and public accounting. Until that accounting is provided item by item, decision by decision. The ₹206-crore design bill will continue to look less like an investment in the future capital and more like a revealing display of what this administration truly values.
