The emerging capital Amaravati is not an isolated city. If the Master Plan released a couple of days ago is any indication, Amaravati is an integral part of a massive complex of various theme cities. With Vijayawada and other theme cities become inseparable parts, Amaravati is not one city, but many. This is going to transform Amaravati into a unique City in the entire world. The Master Plan links Amaravati intricately with Vijayawada and the two cities are planned to grow as twin cities in future. If one carefully reads the Master Plan, one would grasp easily the link between the two cities. It would be impossible to think of one city without thinking of the other.
“The diverse economy of the two cities will complement each other and ultimately emerge as a mega city. Regional Centres have been planned around the existing towns of Nuzvid, Gudivada, Tenali, Guntur, Sattenapalle, Nandigama and Parmaru,” the Master Plan explicitly said.
The Master Plan visualizes a complementary role for each city. The Plan is so carefully prepared that you get the complete meaning when only you take other theme cities in to consideration.
The Capital Region Plan proposes a central twin city accommodating Vijayawada and the Amaravati Capital city as a Mega city. As for complementary economic roles, Vijayawada is the business capital, while Guntur Education Hub, Ibrahimpatanam to be Industrial Suburb and Mangalagiri a Logistics Hub etc.
The capital Amaravati is introducing to India a novel concept of “Concept Cities”. The architects of the Master Plan visualized an Amaravati surrounded by these concept cities. Once fully grown, the nine concept cities planned are bound to exert huge centripetal force on other regions of the state. This is exactly the fear of many informed people that Amaravati is becoming another Hyderabad at the cost of other regions. This also goes against the concept of decentralization of development advocated by experts like Sivaramkrishnan of capital location committee, Dr EAS Sarma, former, secretary, GOI,Dr Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta, Prof Chigurupati Ramachandraiah of CESS etc. Let’s have a look at the concept cities planned in the Master Plan of Amaravati.
1. Government City:
* The ‘seat of power’ will be located at the historical Rayapudi village on the banks of River Krishna. The proposed government city would include Raj Bhavan, Assembly, Secretariat and other administrative buildings. It would be built in 564 hectares. Lingayapalem Township, Rayapudi Township and Velagapudi Township will be part of administrative city.
* While designing the government city, which would be housing all the important government offices, the State government has chosen the Kazakhstan’s capital Astana’s model.
2. Justice City:
* The Justice City, an integrated facility comprising of High Court, Tribunals, Law University, residential quarters for judges, would be coming up on a 1,200-acre plot in the villages of Sakhamuru and Nelapadu. Nelapadu Township, Thullur Township and Kondamarajupalem Township will be part of the Justice City.
* The State government followed the model of the University of Canberra and New York University School of Law for the justice city.
3. Education City:
* The educational hub of the State will come up at Inavolu. International schools, business schools, technology training institutes, basic research and development units, national/ international universities and vocational colleges have been proposed at Inavolu.
* The State government has taken its cue, while
designing the education city, from the Education City, an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development in Doha and the Greater Noida Knowledge Park.
4. Knowledge City:
* The Knowledge City proposed to be built in 1,445 hectares will have Knowledge Park, Housing University campus along with many colleges. As many as 1.220 lakh employment would be created by 2050. Nekkallu Township, Sakhamuru Township & Inavolu Township will be part of the city. IT, aerospace research, biotech, technology incubators, research and development and medical research centres have been proposed at the proposed Knowledge City.
5. Financial City:
* The financial city at Uddandarayunipalem would have nationalised and private banks, international investment banks and insurance business institutions. Malkapuram Townhip, Mandadam Township and Uddandarayunipalem Township will form part of the financial city.
* The inspiration for building this city is been taken from Hong Kong’s Central Business District and Vancouver Financial District, where many multinational financial service corporations have their headquarters.
6. Sports City:
* Sports city will be built in 650 hectares. Big stadia, event centres and international sports centres would be built to organise mega sporting events. With the State to conduct 2019 National Games, the government is giving this city top priority. Abbarajupalem has been allocated the sports city. Abbarajupalem Township, Borupalem Township and Dondapadu Township would be the party of the sports city.
* Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London and Melbourne Olympic Park model are the one the government has in mind for setting up sports city.
7. Electronics City:
* Bethapudi has been earmarked for the electronics city. Kuragallu Township and Nidamarru Township will be part of electronics city.
* To set up electronics city, the government is looking towards Singapore’s One-North and Bengaluru Electronics City model.
8. Health City:
* The health city will come up at Krishnayapalem. It will be built on 1,348 hectares. Health city would be established and would created 1.5 lakh job openings. Nowluru Township & Krishnayapalem Township will be part of health city.
* When comes to health city, the State government has the Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) and Singapore’s Health City Novena.
9. Media city:
Amaravati will have an exclusive city for housing media houses and corporate offices of various TV channels. The inspiration for Digital Media city has been taken from Digital Media city in Seoul and also UK.
