Green fields. A road slashing through them. Joined by rough paths at right angles. A railway line. All of it captured in the video above through extraordinary aerial views.
This is what it may look like now, but if Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu can make his dream come true, the new capital of the state will be India's most modern city.
Welcome to (the idea of) Amravati.
After Hyderabad, the capital of the older, undivided Andhra Pradesh was allotted to new state of Telangana in 2014, Naidu decided that he would build a new capital almost from scratch, instead of picking Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada or Ongole, as originally thought.
This is that upper-class urban dream of India: a Singapore on its own soil.
That's what Naidu hopes to transform Amaravati, a village in the Guntur district, which to. The master planning process of the new capital is being conducted with the Singapore government.
This is the city that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Thursday. True, it's not exactly a city yet. So you might say that what he's inaugurated is an idea.
Under the master-plan, termed the Seed Capital Area, Amaravati is being envisaged as smart, green and sustainable. (So what's new?) Says Naidu, "We will first begin with the roads."
The SCA has planned for world-class infrastructure in the capital city, which includes modern homes for residents and multiple business hubs to generate about seven lakh jobs in the city.
The city also promises an integrated metro rail network of about 12 km, downtown roads of about 7 km, arterial roads, and a total road length of about 26 km. The master plan also includes nature parks and non-motorised transport systems.
Right now, all we see are the aerial views of the River Krishna, the Prakasam barrage, and other famous sites nearby, shot from quadcopters. We'll be back in a couple of years to see how Amravati's looking.
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