Amid chanting of Vedic hymns by priests, the foundation stone of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital Amaravati, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Uddandarayunipalem village in Guntur district, about 40 kms from Vijayawada — the commercial hub of the State. PM, along with Chief Minister of the State N Chandrababu Naidu, performed the rituals to formally lay the foundation stone of the world-class ‘People’s Capital’.
The capital city boasts of a 17-km-long waterfront and is strategically placed between Guntur and Vijayawada. In an effort to generate a sense of belongingness among the people, soil and water from 16,000 villages in the State and prominent pilgrim centres in the country have been brought to the Capital region to be used in the construction of the city.
The Singapore government agencies have prepared the master plan for the three-layered capital — seed capital, capital city and capital region.
Prime Minister went around ‘Amaravati Pavilion’, a walk through showcasing evolution of Amaravati, a place of immense historical, mythological and cultural significance, its present and future.
An aerial view of the Vijayawada-Guntur region where Amaravati – the historical Buddhist site along the Krishna River – is located.
Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Nirmala Sitharaman, Y S Chowdary and Bandaru Dattatreya, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan, Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah, Assam & Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya, and Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao, respectively, were among those present on the occasion of ‘shilanyas’ in the village.
Japan’s State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Yosuke Takagi and Singapore’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran also participated in the ceremony.
The authorities had made seating arrangements for one lakh people as nearly 1.5 to 2 lakh people were expected to attend the event. The venue was decked up with flowers, banners, festoons while LED screens were also put up to help people watch the entire ceremony.