Amaravati, envisioned as an iconic global city with green technologies and the state-of-the-art facilities on the banks of river Krishna is the fourth capital of Andhra Pradesh after Madras, Kurnool and Hyderabad.
Named after the Capital of Satavahana Kingdom of 2nd century AD, Amaravati will be spread over an area of 391.63 square km with a provision to cater to the needs of 11.5 million populations by 2035. It was expected to create 3.3 million jobs. The core area or the seed Capital area will be spread over 16.9 square km with 4 million populations and 1.8 million jobs by 2050.
The entire Capital region, spread to many other cities in Krishna and Guntur districts, will be spread to a whopping 7,420 square km.
Of the 50,000 acres of land the Government procured for the Capital, 33,000 acres were voluntarily pooled by 25,000 farmers. The remaining was the Government and the forest land.
Amaravati will be the only State Capital in the country to have 30 kms long river front and to be built with the participation of the other countries. State Government on Thursday signed a MOU in this regard with Japan. It has already signed a MOU with Singaporean Government last year.
The master plan prepared by Singapore Government in fact includes nine different cities with in Amaravati each as a hub of different industry or business activity.
The seed Capital area will have State legislature, the Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, High Court a river front, parks and all other Government establishments. Officials estimated that the seed Capital will cost 200 billion rupees and the cost of the entire Capital will be 1.20 lakh crore or (Rs1,200 billion).
The Centre has so far announced Rs1500 (Rs15 billion) so far for the project.
In a symbolic gesture to promote the emotional quotient of the project, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday took a helicopter ride over the capital region and sprinkled the soil and the water collected from all the sacred religious places of all the faiths from across the country.