RAJAHMUNDRY:The ancient grand cultural city of Rajahmundry is in the race for the Heritage City tag from the Centre. The city meets all parametres required for a Heritage City tag.
Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, at a recent meeting here, termed Rajahmundry as the cultural capital of Andhra Pradesh and added that this ancient city deserved the Heritage City tag. He said that Rajahmundry was the third city and Tirupati the second in the state that were eligible for the Cultural City tag.
So far, the Union government has bestowed the Heritage City status on Amaravati (AP), Gaya (Bihar), Dwaraka (Gujarat), Badami (Karnataka), Puri (Odisha), Amritsar (Punjab), Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kanchipuram and Velankani (Tamil Nadu), Warangal (Telangana) and Mathura and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
The Union government has introduced a new project Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY). The project is aimed at identifying the ancient cities and protecting and propagating their heritage structures.
Up to 2018, the Centre will select the cities in co-ordination with the respective state governments and provide tourism facilities. Noted historian YS Narsimha Rao said that Rajahmundry, which had a hoary past, richly deserved the Heritage City tag. He said that the city was in existence on the banks of river Godavari from 2nd BC. The city was also a cultural hub, he added. The epic Maha Bharata was translated into Telugu by Adikavi Nannaya Bhattaraka under the aegis of emperor Raja Raja Narendra, he recalled and added that it was the duty of the elected representatives from here to strive for the ‘Heritage City’ tag for Rajahmundry.
Meanwhile, collector H Arun Kumar said that proposals for the ‘Heritage City’ tag would be sent after getting the go-ahead from the state government. He added that proposals relating to Akhanda Godavari Project and change of the city’s name as Rajamahendravaram from Rajahmundry had already been sent to the Centre.
The city has been is in existence since 2nd BC and Buddhism flourished here for long as per the findings of the Archaelogy Department based on the structures it had excavated in 1978.