Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the new Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati on Thursday, 22 October.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that the historical city will rise again as a modern capital city, a vibrant economic centre and one of the most beautiful metros in the world.
Here are 10 things you need to know about Amaravati:
- To be built at a cost of $2 billion, Amaravati is expected to be a world-class city with skyscrapers, metro railway and riverway transport.
- Unlike most of the other Indian state capitals, Amaravati is located at the heart of Andhra Pradesh. Capital cities like Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Mumbai are located at one corner of the state and are thus far from other parts of the respective states.
- Amaravati is easily accessible from Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions as it is centrally situated. It is also closely located to other metros like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru.
- The new capital city is named after the historical site of Amaravathi, which translates to "the city lives forever." The city was formerly known as Andhra Nagari under Mauryan reign.
- Phase 1 of the new capital city, which will comprise of 31 villages, is expected to be completed by 2018.
- Amaravati will be spread over 54,000 acre and will be built as a three-layered capital city that consists of seed capital, capital city and capital region.
- Amaravati will also comprise of nine cities - administrative city, knowledge city, justice city, financial city, educational city, health city, tourism city, sports city and electronics city.
- By 2024, the new Andhra capital will have the state secretariat, high court and legislative assembly, which will be funded by the Centre, as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
- Farmers, who have given their lands as part of the construction of Amaravati, will get plots in the developed capital city on the basis of their land holdings.
- Andhra government has launched the "My Brick, My Amaravati" campaign with the help of Telugu Association of North America (TANA), where in the interested public may sponsor 'bricks' with each brick costing Rs 10.
