Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is putting focus back on developing rural areas and can no longer be called the urban politician.

 The Andhra Pradesh government, which is building its new capital in Guntur-Vijayawada belt, on Monday entered into an agreement with Tata Trusts for community empowerment and improvement of living standards of people in 264 villages. These villages are in the Vijayawada region.

According to Naidu, Tata Trusts have identified these villages in Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency. There are mapped and geo-tagged for proper development programmes. Tata Trusts have mapped and geo-tagged almost 2.5 lakh households covering a million people.

The programme intends to implement "interventions in the thematic areas" of bamboo cultivation, fisheries, nutrition and fortification along with micro planning and village development based on the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).

"I am delighted that Tata Trusts is partnering with Andhra Pradesh by developing 264 villages. This is the first time such a huge number of villages are being adopted. This will set an example in the country as it will be mentored by the industry titan Ratan Tata," Naidu said.

Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata said the partnership with Andhra Pradesh government will be in terms of social activities, nutrition, health and creating livelihood, etc.

R Venkataramanan, executive trustee of Tata Trusts, said they will support the state and administrative bodies in implementation of "multi-thematic development plan" in 264 villages.