The Government of Andhra Pradesh signed a five-year Government-to-Government (G2G) Memorandum of Understanding with the United Kingdom on 25 August 2026, opening the door to British technical expertise, advanced urban technologies, and potential export financing for the development of Amaravati and urban infrastructure across the state’s 123 municipalities. Signed at the State Secretariat in Velagapudi by Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar and UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) Deputy Director for Government Partnerships Chaz Walia, the agreement is structured around four core pillars: infrastructure planning, sustainable urban development, technology transfer and innovation, and integrated urban mobility. With Amaravati emerging as the political centrepiece and ₹40,000 crore worth of civic works already underway across the state, the partnership signals one of the most ambitious foreign collaborations in India’s recent state-level urban history.
The Andhra Pradesh-UK Urban Development Agreement: What Was Signed
The MoU, executed in the presence of MA&UD Minister Ponguru Narayana, British Deputy High Commissioner Gareth Wynn Owen, and UK Trade Counsellor for South Asia Mark Birrell, is the first formal G2G framework between the two governments specifically dedicated to urban development at the sub-national tier.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type of Agreement | Government-to-Government (G2G) Memorandum of Understanding |
| Date of Signing | 25 August 2026 |
| Venue | State Secretariat, Velagapudi (Amaravati capital region) |
| Signed for Andhra Pradesh | Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, MA&UD Department |
| Signed for the UK | Chaz Walia, Deputy Director, Government Partnerships, UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) |
| Witnesses | P. Narayana (Minister, MA&UD); Gareth Wynn Owen (British Deputy High Commissioner); Mark Birrell (UK Trade Counsellor for South Asia) |
| Duration | Five years, with provision for renewal by mutual consent |
| Governance Mechanism | Joint G2G Steering Group, meeting approximately every six months |
| Scope | Amaravati capital city and all 123 urban local bodies (municipalities and municipal corporations) of Andhra Pradesh |
Four Pillars of the G2G MoU
The cooperation is organised around four mutually reinforcing pillars, each anchored in international practice and tailored to the operational needs of the state’s urban sector.
- Infrastructure Planning and Project Development: long-term project planning, prioritisation, financial feasibility, and preparation of investment-ready business cases.
- Sustainable Urban Development: adoption of modern urban planning principles, sustainable construction practices, and environmental conservation frameworks.
- Technology Transfer and Innovation: deployment of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Digital Twins, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and modern construction technologies, backed by capacity building.
- Integrated Urban Mobility: redesign of urban transport systems, integrating metro, bus, airport, and pedestrian infrastructure with data-driven traffic management.
Who Signed and Where
The agreement was inked at the Velagapudi Secretariat, the temporary seat of governance of Andhra Pradesh, located within the Amaravati Capital Region. For the UK side, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), headquartered at the Old Admiralty Building in London, led the signing through its Government Partnerships directorate. DBT is the UK government’s lead department for economic growth and works through a network of HM Trade Commissioners and diplomatic posts to support UK exports, investment, and bilateral commercial engagement. The signing for the state was led by the Principal Secretary of the MA&UD Department, the apex administrative body responsible for municipal governance, urban planning, and infrastructure delivery in all of Andhra Pradesh’s urban local bodies.
A five-year tenure, with a Joint Government-to-Government Steering Group meeting roughly every six months to review progress, gives the partnership a durability rarely seen in city-level cooperation agreements, and places the MoU in the same bracket as long-cycle bilateral frameworks that India has signed with Singapore, Japan, and Australia.
Amaravati: The Centrepiece of a Renewed UK Engagement
Amaravati is not just another Indian city on a partnership list. It is a state capital born out of bifurcation, and its very existence is a constitutional legacy of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, under which the erstwhile combined state of Andhra Pradesh was split into residuary Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on 2 June 2014. With Hyderabad moving to Telangana, the new state needed a new capital, and Amaravati, situated on the southern bank of the Krishna River between Vijayawada and Guntur, was identified and notified on 30 December 2014.
The Existing UK Footprint in Amaravati Through Foster + Partners
The UK is not a new entrant in Amaravati. London-based Foster + Partners, the global architecture firm founded by Lord Norman Foster, has been associated with the capital city project since the master planning stage. The firm designed the Government Complex masterplan and the key buildings that sit at its heart, the Legislative Assembly, the High Court Complex, and several Secretariat buildings. The Assembly, with its 250-metre conical roof and Vaastu-aligned square plan, was designed to sit within a freshwater lake and frame the central axis of the city. The High Court, with its stepped roof form inspired by ancient Indian stupas, was designed to be naturally ventilated and partly solar-powered. Foster + Partners was re-engaged in late 2024 after a successful re-tender, and on 1 May 2025, the Prime Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh laid the foundation stone to relaunch the Amaravati masterplan, formally reopening the construction phase of these iconic structures.
The MoU now operationalises the next layer of this engagement, moving from building design to a fully integrated urban development partnership covering transport, drainage, digital systems, and project financing.
What the Capital City Project Aims to Build
The Amaravati Capital City Project is being built across 217.23 square kilometres, planned as the seat of the state legislature and administration. The institutional backbone for its execution is the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), established under the APCRDA Act, 2014, which came into force on 30 December 2014. APCRDA is the urban planning agency for the entire Capital Region, a notified area of 8,352.69 square kilometres spread across Guntur, Krishna, NTR, Palnadu, Bapatla, and Eluru districts, with Vijayawada as its largest city and headquarters at the Lenin Centre in Vijayawada.
Amaravati’s master plan, prepared with support from the Government of Singapore under an MoU signed on 8 December 2014, was finalised on 23 February 2016. The capital city falls within 23 revenue villages of the Thullur, Mangalagiri, and Tadepalli mandals, with land assembled through a Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) rather than direct acquisition. The proposed Amaravati Riverfront, a major regeneration initiative along the Krishna, is also a key candidate for UK expertise under the new MoU, alongside urban regeneration projects and mixed-use developments planned for the next phase of the capital.
From 123 Municipalities to the State-Wide Urban Mission
While Amaravati is the political centrepiece of the agreement, the partnership’s real geographic sweep lies in the 123 urban local bodies (ULBs) spread across the state. An urban local body is the elected municipal government responsible for civic service delivery in a city or town, ranging from smaller municipalities to larger municipal corporations. In Andhra Pradesh, these 123 ULBs cover every urban settlement from the largest municipal corporations to the smallest town panchayats, and collectively they handle the bulk of the state’s urban infrastructure spending outside the capital region.
The state government is already executing civic projects worth approximately ₹40,000 crore in these ULBs, with combined funding support from the Centre and the State. These works include:
- Arterial and internal roads to ease congestion and improve last-mile connectivity
- Storm-water drainage systems to manage urban flooding during the monsoon
- Protected drinking water supply schemes to deliver safe potable water to households
- Solid and liquid waste management facilities, including modern treatment plants
The MoU explicitly extends the UK partnership to all 123 ULBs, not just Amaravati. Under the framework, UK expert agencies will provide technical support for long-term planning, project prioritisation, financial feasibility assessments, and the preparation of investment-ready business cases for these ongoing and upcoming works. The goal, as Minister Narayana underlined, is not to replace the state’s own infrastructure mission but to layer international best practices on top of it, raising the quality, longevity, and delivery efficiency of projects already in the pipeline.
The Four Pillars in Detail
Infrastructure Planning and Project Development
The first pillar focuses on the discipline of preparing a project from idea to bankable proposition. The two governments will collaborate on long-term project planning, prioritisation of competing urban needs, financial and economic feasibility assessments, and the development of investment-ready business cases that can attract private capital, multilateral financing, or UK Export Finance (UKEF) support. The pillar also covers project design, programme management, and execution standards, drawing on the UK’s experience in delivering complex, multi-stakeholder urban programmes.
Sustainable Urban Development and Construction Practices
Under this pillar, UK agencies will provide technical assistance to incorporate modern urban planning principles, sustainable construction practices, and environmental conservation frameworks into Andhra Pradesh’s urban expansion plans. For Amaravati, this means tying the next phase of construction to internationally benchmarked sustainability criteria, including green-building standards, low-carbon construction methods, and integration of natural features such as the Krishna riverfront into the urban fabric.
Technology Transfer and Innovation
Technology is the most visible dimension of the partnership. Andhra Pradesh plans to adopt a stack of advanced tools currently used in major global infrastructure projects:
- Building Information Modelling (BIM): a 3D digital model-based process that lets engineers, architects, and contractors design, simulate, and manage a building or infrastructure asset across its entire lifecycle, from design to demolition.
- Digital Twins: a real-time digital replica of a physical asset, process, or system that mirrors its real-world behaviour using live sensor data, used for monitoring, predictive maintenance, and scenario planning.
- Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS): the integration of information, communication, and sensor technologies into transport infrastructure to manage traffic, reduce congestion, and improve safety.
- Advanced construction technologies: modern methods of construction, including prefabrication, modular systems, and automation.
Alongside these tools, the MoU provides for knowledge-sharing programmes, research and development collaboration, and capacity-building initiatives between UK-based institutions and state government agencies to train local engineers and urban planners.
Integrated Urban Mobility
The fourth pillar targets the daily experience of moving through a city. The partnership aims to overhaul transit infrastructure across key urban centres by linking metro rail networks, city bus corridors, airport connectivity, and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure into a single, integrated system. Data-driven traffic management systems will be deployed to optimise routes, reduce severe congestion, lower urban carbon emissions, and provide seamless last-mile connectivity for citizens. The cooperation also envisages improvements in pedestrian movement planning, public transport integration, and accessibility standards across the 123 ULBs.
Institutional and Governance Architecture
The MoU creates a formal bilateral architecture that goes well beyond a ceremonial handshake. The central coordinating body is the Joint Government-to-Government Steering Group, which will meet approximately every six months to provide strategic direction and review progress across all four pillars.
The Joint Steering Group and Five-Year Duration
The Steering Group will include senior representatives from the Andhra Pradesh MA&UD Department, the UK Department for Business and Trade, and other relevant agencies on both sides. It is tasked with approving work streams, monitoring deliverables, and resolving any operational bottlenecks. The MoU will remain in force for five years from the date of signing, with a provision for renewal by mutual consent, giving the partnership the legal longevity to plan multi-year capital projects and embed training programmes that take years to mature. This is consistent with the UK’s broader engagement pattern in India, where state-level and city-level partnerships have increasingly been treated as long-term institutional relationships rather than one-off announcements.
The Financial and Geopolitical Stakes
Behind the technical language of BIM, Digital Twins, and Intelligent Transport Systems lies a strategic question: who will finance, build, and operate India’s next generation of cities? The MoU is as much about answering that question as it is about technology transfer.
UK Export Finance and Project Bankability
A distinctive feature of the agreement is the potential use of UK Export Finance (UKEF) to support eligible overseas infrastructure projects. UKEF is the UK’s export credit agency, a government-backed institution that provides loans, guarantees, and insurance to help UK exporters win overseas business and to support foreign buyers purchasing UK goods and services. Under the MoU, UKEF can consider financing support for eligible infrastructure projects in Andhra Pradesh, subject to financial eligibility, due diligence, UK-content requirements, and other standard criteria.
The presence of UKEF as a possible financing tool signals that the partnership is not purely advisory. If Amaravati or any of the 123 ULBs commissions a UK firm for a turnkey urban infrastructure package, UKEF could step in to provide the long-tenure financing that Indian state budgets often struggle to deliver. The state government has framed the existing ₹40,000 crore urban works programme as the foundation on which UK expertise and innovative financing will now be layered. The Amaravati Riverfront, urban regeneration projects, and mixed-use developments are all flagged for further engagement with Team UK, including possible UKEF-backed financing, collaboration with UK universities on research, and wider infrastructure development support.
For Andhra Pradesh, which has historically faced fiscal constraints in delivering its capital city vision, the possibility of concessional, long-tenure British financing could be a critical enabler. For the UK, a successful Andhra Pradesh engagement provides a reference project for exporting British urban expertise across South Asia, complementing its broader trade policy push into India, including the ongoing negotiations for a UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the existing UK-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Significance and the Road Ahead
The MoU marks a step change in how Indian states are approaching urban infrastructure delivery. For decades, state-level urban partnerships with foreign governments were largely confined to individual smart-city projects or technology pilots. The Andhra Pradesh-UK agreement is broader in scope, longer in duration, and more institutionally embedded, with a five-year horizon, a dedicated Steering Group, and four operational pillars spanning planning, sustainability, technology, and mobility.
For Amaravati specifically, the partnership accelerates the next phase of construction after the foundation stone relaunch in May 2025. With Foster + Partners already on board for the Government Complex and the new MoU adding UK expertise for urban planning, transport, and financing, the capital city project now has both architectural and urban systems support from the same foreign partner.
For the 123 ULBs, the immediate benefit is access to technical advisory support that can improve the quality and delivery of works already in progress, particularly in drainage, water supply, and waste management. For state finances, the potential involvement of UK Export Finance offers an alternative source of long-tenure capital.
The partnership also sits within a wider pattern of Indian states courting international partners for capital city development. Andhra Pradesh had previously signed an MoU with Singapore in December 2014 for the Amaravati master plan. The UK agreement extends that internationalisation track record to a second major partner, this time with a stronger focus on implementation, technology, and financing rather than just planning.
The next steps will depend on the Steering Group’s first formal review, expected within six months of signing, which will set out priority projects, identify UK delivery partners, and assess the pipeline of investments eligible for UK Export Finance support. If the partnership delivers as envisaged, it could become a model for how Indian states leverage foreign government partnerships to translate ambitious urban visions into bankable, technology-enabled, and internationally benchmarked projects.
Key Takeaways
- The Government of Andhra Pradesh signed a five-year Government-to-Government (G2G) MoU with the United Kingdom on 25 August 2026 at the State Secretariat in Velagapudi to strengthen cooperation in urban development, infrastructure, and advanced technology.
- The agreement covers the new capital city Amaravati and all 123 urban local bodies (municipalities and municipal corporations) across Andhra Pradesh, focusing on roads, drainage, drinking water, and solid and liquid waste management.
- The MoU was signed by Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Department, and Chaz Walia, Deputy Director for Government Partnerships at the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT), in the presence of Minister Ponguru Narayana.
- The partnership is structured around four pillars: infrastructure planning, sustainable urban development, technology transfer and innovation, and integrated urban mobility.
- Technology cooperation covers Building Information Modelling (BIM), Digital Twins, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and modern construction technologies, with capacity-building programmes between UK institutions and state agencies.
- A Joint G2G Steering Group will meet approximately every six months to review progress, and the MoU will remain in force for five years, with provision for renewal by mutual consent.
- The agreement enables the potential use of UK Export Finance (UKEF) to support eligible overseas infrastructure projects, subject to financial, due diligence, and UK-content criteria.
- Andhra Pradesh is already executing urban infrastructure projects worth approximately ₹40,000 crore across its ULBs, with central and state funding, on top of which UK expertise and innovative financing will now be layered.
- Amaravati, notified on 30 December 2014 after the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, is being developed across 217.23 sq km under the master plan prepared with Singapore’s support.
- Foster + Partners, the London-based architecture firm, designed the Government Complex masterplan including the Legislative Assembly, High Court Complex, and Secretariat buildings, and was re-engaged in late 2024 after a successful re-tender.
- The nodal executing agency for the Amaravati Capital City Project is the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), established under the APCRDA Act, 2014, which came into force on 30 December 2014.
- The UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT), headquartered at the Old Admiralty Building in London, leads the UK’s economic growth agenda and operates through a network of HM Trade Commissioners and diplomatic posts, including the British Deputy High Commission covering Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
