What future holds for Andhra's new capital Amravati

Amaravati will connect all the strengths of Andhra Pradesh, and is part of the larger development plan of AP.

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Here in Andhra, we are lucky in two ways. We have an opportunity to build a new city from scratch. It's difficult to make any existing city a green city or a smart city. We would have to dig up an entire city to get just the underground cables right. So being able to start with clean flat land and build the city from scratch is in itself a blessing. Then, the CM's credibility has brought Singapore on board which has given us a master plan, free of cost, done in a professional way, and delivered on the dot. The Centre for Livable Cities, which has expertise in designing cities across the world, worked with the AP CRDA officials and we have this very well thought out plan now.

After due deliberations with hundreds of experts, what we now have is master plan for the seed (core) capital, the capital area and capital region. The master plan gives you an idea of the zones, where the education, government offices are situated. The CM has the concept of building cities within the main capital, such as a justice city, health city, port city and so on.

The individual design of the buildings will have to be worked out by the builders and developers.

In the core area, the government buildings will be built by the state government with the assistance of the union government that is as per the state bifurcation rules. So the high court, assembly, secretariat, and so on will be built in the core area. Infrastructure, roads, bridges, hospitals and schools will be built in the PPP mode.

Initially, a few thousand acres will be the area where the entire effort is going to be concentrated, and then it will grow organically from there. We want this city to be one that attracts talent from not only different parts of the country, but different parts of the globe. It's a part of the larger game plan we have for the state.

If you look at the geography we have, we have the second largest coastline. Unlike the other coasts, we have a deep draft, between 18 and 24 metres, and that too without the problem of siltation. We are very close to Southeast Asia, and we could easily be the gateway to India. We have many small and medium sized ports, such as Gangavaram, Machilipatnam and so on.

All these small and bigger ports are to be revived. Again, these will be in the PPP mode. Along the coast we have the Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor, which is in a very advanced stage of development. Then, we have the petroleum corridor, the PCPIR. We have part of the golden quadrilateral running through the state. From Kakinada to Pondicherry we have the Buckingham canal, which is the internal waterway created by the British. As per km waterways cost 25 paise, vis-a-vis train at 1.25 paise, and roadways at 1.60 paise; we will use waterways for goods transport.

Source - ET