VIJAYAWADA: Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, will have a population of nearly 1.2 million — more or less the same population as Vijayawada now — by 2024-25.
This is according to Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) Commissioner Ch Sridhar. Interacting with members of Young India, a unit of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), here Wednesday, he said in the next seven-eight years, 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh people from nearby areas of Amaravati like Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali etc will migrate to the capital.
Around 4.5 lakh are expected to migrate from other states and even other countries, while another 2.5 lakh people from other parts of Andhra Pradesh are likely to make Amaravati their home, he said.
Adding the local population of around 1.5 lakh, the population of Amaravati will be 1 million to 1.2 million by 2024-25, he explained.
Describing Amaravati as the most modern city of India in the making, the CRDA Commissioner said it will provide ample opportunities for all.
“What we are looking at is a world class city built with global expertise and local touch. Around `70,000 crore will be spent on the capital city construction over the next five years. It will provide plenty of opportunities for young entrepreneurs and local entrepreneurs to be part of the capital development activity, be it transportation, smart technologies, architecture, designing, or housing, he said.
Sridhar, comparing the development of Amaravati with the fastest constructed capital city in the world - Astana (capital of Kazakhstan), said development was happening three times faster here.
“It took five-and-a-half years for them to reach the masterplanning stage, while we have completed land acquisition, master planning, infrastructure planning, acquiring financial resources and now have reached the construction phase,” he pointed out. Explaining that Amaravati is being planned as a smart, efficient and happiest city, he said people will have more leisure time than in any other city.
“It is because, we will be saving precious 3 to 5 hours traffic time that you spend in other cities commuting from workplace to home, to school, to hospital etc. In Amaravati, it will be just 15 minutes walk from home to workplace, school, hospital, shopping mall or the nearest transportation hub,” he explained.
The CRDA Commissioner also claimed that Brand Amaravati has already become noted among the world community and now the challenge before them was to live up to the expectations.
Earlier, Guntur MP Jayadev Galla explained how Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu worked out the idea of Amaravati and with people’s participation was realising it today.
Industrialist Y Harish Chandra Prasad suggested APCRDA should think about promoting F1H2O (Formula One on Waters using high speed boats), a truly international event, which he said, will be in tune with CM’s dreams of F1 Race Course for Hyderabad.