Amaravati: Capital on revival road after years of turbulence

(Top) Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of infrastructure projects in Amaravati on Friday; (right) Modi lays the foundation stone of Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh during N Chandrababu Naidu's previous stint as chief minister in 2015. ANI/GOVT. OF INDIA

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

"At last, Amaravati is becoming a reality. Our relentless fight for five years has paid off. Now, we are breathing easy," said 35-year-old Gadde Surendra Babu, a farmer from Rayapudi village.

Babu was one among the nearly 24,000 farmers who together gave at least 34,000 acres of fertile land a decade ago to the state government for the construction of Amaravati as the Andhra Pradesh capital under a Land Pooling scheme (LPS). He surrendered 23 acres of land, hoping he would be part of a world-class capital city visualised by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. But then things changed. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy swept to power in 2019 and abandoned the Amaravati project, leaving Babu and thousands of other Amaravati farmers in the lurch.

"We suffered a lot during those five years, fighting legal battles with the government in the high court and Supreme Court. The value of the commercial plots and residential plots allotted by the previous TDP government under the land pooling system went down drastically. We had given up hope," he said.

Then, things changed again. Naidu's TDP won the high-stakes state polls last year and returned to power. Better still, it partnered the Bharatiya Janata Party, performed well in the Lok Sabha elections, and became part of the coalition NDA government in Delhi. With Naidu's return, the Amaravati project returned to the spotlight. "We see men and machinery everywhere. We are now confident," said Babu, who is among the farmers invited to the Friday relaunch of the Amaravati project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Velagapudi.

After years of uncertainty, legal battles, and political turmoil, Amaravati is set to rise again. The dream project of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the 34,389-acre city is finally ready to shake off the tags of "ghost city" and "graveyard", using the backing of the state and central government to target a deadline of three years for completion.