Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, will be the fifth planned capital city in India. Its construction will be underpinned by both modern technology and heritage — it was the capital of the Satavahana dynasty almost two millennia ago. There is one word which best describes this dream project: Gigantic. In both conceptualisation and ambition, Amaravati is perhaps unmatched in independent India. Driven by the zeal of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, this brand new city aims to be 25% larger than present day Chennai and to accommodate 11 million people — in 20 years.

Bifurcation was hard on Andhra Pradesh. It was left with more than half the population of the undivided state, but a far smaller proportion of revenue. Disregarding sceptical experts, Naidu has staked the state’s future on the creation of a modern city which is expected to attract investment and generate service sector jobs. Amaravati’s creation is also being assisted by Singapore and Japan governments. The aim is to build a city benchmarked against the most liveable cities globally. Parks and open spaces get the largest share in the land use plan and a mass rapid transport system has been given priority too. A welcome feature has been the state government’s attempt to build an emotional bond between citizens and Amaravati through crowd-funding and other measures.

Projects on this scale usually get stuck in land acquisition problems. Andhra has beaten this hurdle by getting farmers to transfer 33,000 acres in barely a year through a land pooling approach. While this first hurdle has been cleared, more challenges lie ahead. Over Rs 1 trillion is needed for the city’s infrastructure, which cannot come from the financially stretched state government. PPP, which will be an important resource raising mechanism, has a patchy record in India. Also, opposition parties are unhappy with the project, making Amaravati overdependent on Naidu.

If this dream is to be realised, both the government and opposition must bridge their differences. Amaravati belongs to the state and everyone has a stake in it. NDA government must strongly support the state through the early phases of this project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recognises urbanisation as an opportunity. He should walk the talk by backing Andhra Pradesh when it tackles the challenges which lie ahead — as Amaravati could provide an exciting template for building new cities across India.