The seed capital plan for the new capital Amaravati, unveiled by the Singapore agencies, projects the core capital region more as a hub of financial and business activities than a place to live in.
Different zones The core capital is divided into different zones: the gateway to the city; the downtown, which will be the core of commercial and business activities; the government core comprising the entire administrative establishment at one place; and the waterfront, a stretch of the core capital with the Krishna running through it.
The downtown is at the heart of the core capital.
It will be flanked by the government’s core on the one side and the waterfront and the entry point on the other.
Smart cities model The plan is developed on the principles of lifestyle, investments, public facilities, infrastructure/connectivity, heritage/culture, jobs, nature and clean and green concept forming the basis of smart cities. The mega city will be linked to seven regional centres encircling the towns and cities in Vijayawada and Guntur districts, where the government plans to develop specialised industrial hubs.
The capital region has been designed to cater for an 11.5-million population, with a provision for 3.3 million jobs by 2035, while the core capital area, spread over 16.9 sq.km, will meet the requirements of four million people, creating close to 1.8 million jobs by 2050. There are provisions to house the entire government machinery, including the Secretariat, the legislature and the other facilities abutting the downtown.
Greenfield capital The design suggests that the proposed greenfield capital will have an extensive internal road network, covering over 1,000 km.
An equal importance has been given to walkways and pedestrian paths spanning 300 km.
With Amaravati, a key constituent in the Buddhist circuit, abutting the area, a 250-km religious tourism circuit has been incorporated into the core capital region.
The planners appear to have considered the threat of flooding looming large over the capital region, bisected by the Krishna, going by a 30-km stretch of public waterfront and the greenbelts along side the river.
“The focus will be on developing the seed capital region first, and this will be followed by the development of the peripheral areas,” Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said at a press conference at Rajahmundry on Monday.
First phase by 2018 Mr. Naidu, accompanied by Singapore’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran, addressed the media after Mr. Iswaran submitted the copy of the plan. He said the government was committed to completing the first phase of the work by the end of 2018, and it was opting for the Swiss Challenge method to identify the developers for the work.
Partnership Mr. Iswaran said the submission of the plan marked the beginning of Singapore’s partnership with the State to help it develop the capital city.
“We will continue to collaborate on the development of Amaravati,” he said.
