India’s move to build smart cities got a major
push when Prime Minister, Narendra Modi recently laid the foundation stone of
Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s dream capital. Amaravati, the capital of the
truncated Andhra Pradesh, is planned to be developed as a
"futuristic" world-class city with expertise from Japan and
Singapore, and the cost of building it could be in excess of $2 billion. The land acquisition model that the state used for acquiring
nearly 32,000 acres for the capital has been lauded by many and the Centre. An
area covering 30 villages between Vijayawada and Guntur, some 35 km away from
Amaravati town. For, this is the only place where the Krishna flows north
instead of east or south which is considered to be auspicious by many.
The Seed Capital development Area will
cover 16.7 sq km and comprise the AP Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council,
High Court, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, quarters for the ministers and officials,
and the township for government officials. Work on this is already started.
Expected to be completed by 2018-19, the Seed Capital Area (SCA) will be home
to about 3 lakh residents. The business hub is expected to generate about 7
lakh jobs in various sectors, including government. There will be a thriving,
state of the art, Central Business District (CBD) for business and living. The
master plan envisages nodes and corridors for a transit-oriented development
approach. So, there will be an integrated network of 12km of Metro railways,
15km of Bus Rapid Transit systems, 7km of downtown roads, 26km of arterial and
sub-arterial roads and 53km of collector roads. A regional expressway and an
outer regional expressway will connect various towns to the core capital
region. A dedicated freight corridor will connect with highways leading to New
Delhi via Hyderabad. National Waterway 4 proposed to be developed on
Wazirabad-Vijayawada-Vodarevu Port and Wazirabad-Vijayawada-Rajahmundry-Kakinada
routes connecting other places via rivulets and canals. An airport planned at
Mangalagiri, and five corridors will have high-speed railways.
AP Govt’s
innovative crowd-funding initiative
In the past 10 days, since the launch of ‘My Brick, My Amaravati,
a crowd-funding initiative, over 34 lakh digital bricks have been sold online.
When one buys a digital brick for ₹10, one’s name is engraved on it and it is
kept in a repository for ever. And the donor gets a certificate of commendation
from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, which reads: “Every brick matters and
every effort is valued. Your gesture will go a long way in realizing Amaravati
as a true people’s capital.” The idea of the government, as explained in the
portal www.amaravati.gov.in,
is not only to ensure people’s participation but also get donations. A special
window for international donations will also be opened shortly. The total
number of donors who bought the 34.40 lakh bricks as of Monday evening stood at
52,764, raising ₹3.40 crore so far. The state government estimates that it will
need at least ₹1 lakh crore to construct the new capital. Efforts are also on
to approach The Guinness Books
of World Records to enter
this initiative as the first crowd-funding programme using the concept of
digital bricks.
Irrespective
of all what’s going on in our country right now, be it bans or secularism
issues, one good thing that is emerging is the constant effort of the
government to boost economic and infrastructural development in the country.
Now it’s the time for us all to get over these social taboos and beliefs and
join together as Indians to take our country to a new level altogether since
efforts like building Smart Cities and Digitalizing India, are steps forward in
the same direction.
-Anshul Gupta
Student, INLEAD
INBM, July 2015
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