Myriad Problems to Subsist and Building a City to Exist Forever - Amaravati: A Marriage to Complement

I had talked about the foreign home city and state over the last three years on various occasions in this space as I had stayed here. I had contributed to these places in both online and offline mediums over the years for sustaining me at the prime time of my work and age. In addition to belief on the growth of these places, the reason can also be about my selfish well-being, survival and existence. I had been going through tumultuous times recently over the past 10 months. Due to my scope of work, I spend a lot of money with little income. In pursuit of raising my income, I fell into some traps of fraud. As a result, I had loans, credit and EMIs on top of my head making me extremely financially weak. I complained in this medium about the same couple of times but to no avail. These financial challenges prevent me from having a good individual 1BHK house, a car, living with my spouse or mother and bring them to US, pay a visit to home country or to overcome many hurdles required for a decent life with dignity. When you have these frauds and loans consuming, you cannot think about much else. At the end when you lose hope, you give up on your life. This is not how it is supposed to work. There are no protections for hard workers in this country, there are no protections for risk takers or who put their life online most of the times, there are no protections for the family members etc. for contributing immensely towards the society. This is not how the system should work. Imagine if something unpleasant happens and who will bear the responsibility. Honest, hardworking and servants of the society should be upheld in a country with their heads held high in great positions and not put to constant test and make them cry every week. This is not good for the person, not good for the society, not good for anyone else and these very people will cease to operate if this drags on. What kind of a world do you live in when you shed tears every week with helplessness and little hope for a better tomorrow.  

Owing to these reasons and with a hope that someone comes to the aid, I have been reaching out to my own land and my own people to pull me out of this mess. Everyone feels the grass is always green on the other side, but the grass alone knows the difficulty in maintaining the greenery and the grass alone knows it cannot subsist in any other color. Instead of going green over the green grass as a perpetual habit, take care of the lawn which has been neglected for its greenery for a long time. For instance, nothing good has happened to me since the last five years after my marriage. The reason being I am a ‘green’ person. I led a pathetic, wretched life ever since, had frequent family feuds, my lone mother never stayed with me since last 3.5 years and my financials are a complete mess now with a little hope for tomorrow. Tell me one area where I came good other than in service to other people, entities and countries. I could go on about the bad phase currently going on and particularly about the last 3 years in foreign nation which is at best pathetic personally. Nothing good came out of these 3 years and I don’t know where all the money earned went. The current buzz word is ‘I don’t know’ about my life as I keep my heart, my brain, my legs and all body parts on line every day to make it a day. No where else you might have seen something like this in the broad day light – an open crime going on for ages, getting worse and without getting better. I don’t remember how many times I took rebirth after going till the jaws of death as part of daily operations. These are not ordinary sentences but words of wonderment which you hardly see. When I call for compensation after going through hell; people cry foul, deny it every time and call me as someone seeking a ‘quick’ buck. People can enjoy at my expense but remember these ‘crimes’ will number, and a day will come. I fear if there is light at all at the end of the tunnel and if darkness continues for eternity unless I break out of the loop. I don’t know what can be done to bring that light and a new dawn even if it means retreating to India. As mentioned, the badness in my life is so vast that it can go on and on, but I would like to be rescued from this trench. If there is money, then I can get some luxury in fixing some of the problems. It is my deepest yearning that someone should help me sooner than later. In this episode, I once again reach out to my own people for their good in expectation of my own good. 

The good I am talking about in this post is the capital city of my birth state of Andhra Pradesh. I was born and stayed in Andhra Pradesh for 22 years but hardly spoke about it recently. I was married to my spouse who is from a place near my hometown. So, the region has a huge imprint on my life in the last five years and much before that. Andhra Pradesh has been bifurcated into two states in 2014. Seeing the parent state without a capital city even after 11 years or nothing concrete in sight has been a pain point. The great meaning of ‘Amaravati’ means the abode of immortals. The main motive for a person like me is to live or the struggle to exist. When the earlier government was hell bent to build ‘Amaravati’, there came the power for my survival. With this very idea left to guessing, the survival becomes a question of chance. We need to reverse this and as per the greater wishes, need to pursue Amaravati as a great grand capital of Andhra Pradesh and a pride of Telugu culture and heritage. Let us survive this notion for long into the future and build a capital of dreams which everyone can get inspiration from. This should have been already on track and completed by now but still never late to begin the important work. 

When the Parliament passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act in 2014, carving Telangana out of the undivided state, Andhra Pradesh was left without a capital. Hyderabad, the financial and administrative powerhouse, went to Telangana. The loss was not just geographic or administrative — it was emotional, cultural, and economic. Out of this rupture, a new dream was born: Amaravati, the People’s Capital. 

It was not chosen at random. It was envisioned to be more than brick and mortar. Amaravati was to be a symbol of unity for the residual state, a planned, modern city that could carry Andhra Pradesh into the future. And most crucially, it was built — quite literally — on the trust and sacrifice of thousands of farmers. 

Today, that dream stands at a crossroads. Political reversals, policy indecision, and delays have jeopardized not only an ambitious development project but also the lives and livelihoods of those who believed in it. This is not just an urban planning issue — it is a test of political credibility, economic foresight, and moral responsibility. 

Unlike most capital cities built on government-acquired land, Amaravati’s foundation was unique: the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS). Instead of coercion, the government in 2014 appealed directly to the people — especially farmers from 29 villages along the fertile banks of the Krishna River — to contribute their agricultural land voluntarily. 

And they did. In a staggering show of public faith, over 28,000 farmers handed over 29,000 acres of some of the most productive farmland in the state. This was no barren wasteland; it was multi-crop, irrigated land that had sustained generations. The farmers were promised urban plots in return, world-class infrastructure, and opportunities far greater than traditional farming could offer. 

This was more than a land deal — it was a social contract. Farmers gave up their livelihoods for the state’s greater good. The government, in turn, promised to transform that land into a vibrant capital city. The Amaravati master plan, developed with global urban design firms like Singapore’s Surbana Jurong, was nothing short of visionary.  

In December 2019, when the three-capital proposal was announced, farmers — including women and elderly — took to the streets. What began as local agitation quickly evolved into one of the longest-running continuous protests in independent India. 

For over 1,300 days, farmers have marched, rallied, and camped out, demanding that Amaravati remain the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh. They have walked hundreds of kilometers in "Nyaya Yatras" (Justice Marches) across the state, facing police action, arrests, and intimidation. 

Their protest is not driven by partisan politics but by survival. They are fighting for: 

1. Restoration of the original capital plan. 

2. Fulfillment of infrastructure promises. 

3. Protection of their economic future. 

The sight of elderly women farmers holding placards in the blistering heat or pouring rain should shame any government that claims to work for the people. 

Amaravati is more than a city; it is a test of Andhra Pradesh’s political maturity and moral compass. The decision is not about party manifestos or election cycles — it is about whether a government stands by its word when power changes hands. 

The farmers of Amaravati have shown a resilience and unity rarely seen in modern India. Their protest is a reminder that governance is ultimately a pact between the state and its people. Breaking that pact has consequences far beyond politics — it erodes the very foundation of democracy. 

If Andhra Pradesh is to rebuild trust, attract investment, and unite its regions, there is only one path forward: honor the sacrifice, complete the vision, and make Amaravati the sole capital it was always meant to be. The people deeply wish for surviving the city and make it a great capital, it is up to those in power to honor the same. 

Amaravati’s capital project, once stalled, has seen a significant revival since mid-2024 under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, with funding commitments now totaling around ₹65,000 crore from sources such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, HUDCO, and the central government. After years of uncertainty, more than 90 previously abandoned projects have been reactivated, with contracts worth ₹43,000 crore awarded and ₹2,100 crore released early in the 2025–26 financial year to jump-start works. The most visible progress is on the legislative assembly building, awarded to L&T for ₹617 crore and now under active construction, along with extensive trunk road networks — about 350 kilometers of smart roads — and flood-protection embankments along the Krishna River. Six reservoirs are also planned to secure water supply. 

Despite this renewed momentum, much of Amaravati’s original vision remains incomplete. The grand administrative towers, including a proposed 50-storey Secretariat, have been approved but are still in the early stages of development. Housing remains a mixed picture — around 5,000 economically weaker section (EWS) units have been allotted, with roughly 2,000 under construction, while residences for legislators and officials are partly built and still unoccupied. Educational institutions such as SRM and VIT-AP universities are operational, yet associated student housing and supporting commercial zones have lagged. Several major components — the international airport, township developments, and designated industrial zones — remain in the conceptual or planning stages, awaiting fresh land acquisition and development decisions. Investor confidence, although improving, is still fragile; at a recent investment conclave, only one of 47 proposed hotel projects was aimed at Amaravati, with developers citing tight timelines and visible underdevelopment as deterrents. 

Government officials now project that the city’s road network could be complete within a year, but the core government buildings may take until 2028 to be fully operational. Until then, Amaravati will remain a city in transition — visibly under construction, financially backed, but still far from the gleaming, fully functional capital that thousands of farmers envisioned when they gave their fertile land a decade ago. When Delhi can build a great parliament structure, Telengana can build a great state secretariat from the times as inspiration, Andhra Pradesh can definitely build a world-class capital city for the future. More than anything else, the capital city which should survive forever needs no better time than present to commence and complete.