Capital dreams rekindled: The making of Amaravati

Dubbed a 'ghost town' until recently, the 2,300-year-old city is all set for a revival, giving the locals and industry a reason to cheer. SHINE JACOB reports

- SHINE JACOB reports

Amaravati, nestled along the southern banks of the Krishna River in Andhra Pradesh, is in a festive mood. Across the 20-kilometre stretch from Vijayawada to the state's futuristic capital, everything—from the lush green trees and harvest-ready fields to the buildings—points to one thing: the arrival of Amaravati 2.0. It is a kind of rebirth for the 2,300-year-old city, once the cradle of Buddhist culture and a seat of dynasties like the Ikshvakus, Pallavas, and Cholas. The city was dubbed a "ghost town" in the regime of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP).

Later this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to relaunch construction on the Amaravati greenfield capital city, a move that gives renewed hope to locals and industry stakeholders who had given up on the project after the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government floated the three-capital theory. His idea was to have Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, and Amaravati and Kurnool as the legislative and judicial capitals, respectively. Roads and unfinished tall buildings, once overrun with wild shrubs and weeds until the Assembly elections in June 2024, have since been cleared. Bumpy roads have been reconstructed, and bylanes that looked deserted and haunting just 10 months ago are now vibrant once again. Massive cut-outs of Modi, Chief Minister (CM) N Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy CM Konidela Pawan Kalyan, and Minister Nara Lokesh line the city.