Hyderabad: SS Rajamouli, the director who was heaped with praises for the grandeur of Mahishmati, the imaginary city in Baahubali, has now been roped in by the Andhra Pradesh government to help finalize the designs to build its new capital city of Amaravati.
While the massive sets created by Rajamouli has impressed Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, it has failed to do so to the opposition or even BJP, who are allies of the TDP government.
SS Rajamouli recently met Naidu in Amaravati to discuss the designs of government buildings in the upcoming capital city.
World renowned London-based architect, Norman Foster, has been assigned the duty of finalising designs for the government buildings in Amaravati. On September 14, architects of Fosters + Partners presented the final models of the proposed Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and High Court buildings.
After reviewing the designs, the Chief Minister was of the opinion that they need improvement and advised the firm to spend more time on it. Naidu insists the building must reflect world-class architecture and that the High Court designs must be revisited.
The project is expected to cost about Rs 55,000 crore with the state government seeking a loan of Rs 15,000 crore from the World Bank and the central government sanctioning Rs 1,500 crore.
Opposition YSRCP has slammed the government for wasting time and money on this.
YSRCP MLA Ramakrishna Reddy said, “There are engineers and architects in our state, why was Rajamouli chosen instead of them? Does he have the right knowledge and experience to deal with a complex subject like architecture?”
BJP, an ally of TDP, has also condemned the wastage of funds and public money.
BJP spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said, “We all want a great capital. But we don’t support the wastage of public funds. Rajamouli is a genius and a visionary but he is not an architect or engineer."
While the Baahubali director is scheduled to fly to London to finalise the designs sitting with architects, Naidu has also advised his ministers to involve youngsters who have considerable exposure to art and architecture.
The Chief Minister is also scheduled to visit Foster + Partners on October 25 to finalise the designs.
Faced with a lot of flak, Rajamouli said, “There are reports that I have been appointed as a consultant, designer, supervisor for Amaravati. These are not true. Foster + Partners are a world renowned architectural firm. The designs they submit were first class in my opinion. Chandrababu Naidu and his team are very happy with them, but he wanted the design for the Assembly to be much more iconic. All I am doing is interpreting the vision of the CM to Foster+Partners to quicken the process. Hope my small contribution will be helpful in this epic project."
The new capital of Andhra Pradesh Amaravati has been proposed at a spot between Vijayawada and Guntur and promises to be the most modern and smart city.
The Andhra Pradesh government aims at developing Amaravati as a world class ‘greenfield’ capital. CM Naidu aspires to create magic and aims to build a smart and world class capital, beating the likes of London, Paris and Singapore.
Naidu wants Amaravati to reflect the diverse and affluent culture of Andhra Pradesh, along with innovative designs for the key structures.
The city that is spread over a land area of 217 square kilometres that was acquired under the land pooling scheme.
Amaravati will have nine mini cities with separate ones for finance, government, tourism, health, sports, etc. The project aims to create 1.5 million jobs by 2050.
In the first phase, government structures like the high court, legislative buildings and secretariat will be completed by 2019. Temporary structures for these key establishment have already been constructed at a cost of Rs 750 crore.
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