The Union Cabinet is expected to clear the amendment before the end of December 2025, paving the way for an Amendment Bill to be introduced in the Budget Session of Parliament, beginning February 2026.
Published Dec 12, 2025 | 6:39 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 12, 2025 | 6:39 PM
Dhyana Buddha Statue in Amaravati. (Creative Commons)
Synopsis: Acting on the state government’s request to declare Amaravati as the state capital, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary earlier this month, seeking clarification on the proposed date of effect for the amendment. Chief Secretary K Vijayanand replied, saying the state wanted Amaravati to be recognised as the capital effective 2 June 2024.
The Union Government reportedly has begun the process of amending the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, to formally declare Amaravati as the sole capital of the state.
Amaravati will be the state capital with retrospective effect from 2 June 2024 – the exact day the 10-year “common capital” arrangement with Hyderabad had ended.
The development follows the Andhra Pradesh government’s request to amend Section 5(2) of the 2014 Act.
The section had allowed Hyderabad to serve as the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana until 2 June 2024. With that transitional period being now over, the State sought legal closure by designating Amaravati as the exclusive capital from the same date.
Acting on the state government’s request, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary earlier this month, seeking clarification on the proposed date of effect for the amendment.
In a reply sent within days, Chief Secretary K Vijayanand reaffirmed that the state wanted Amaravati recognised as the capital effective 2 June 2024 – 10 years since Andhra Pradesh was divided and lost Hyderabad.
According to sources, a detailed Cabinet note on the proposed amendment is already under preparation and is likely to be circulated to the ministries concerned within a week.
The Union Cabinet is expected to clear the amendment before the end of December 2025, paving the way for an Amendment Bill to be introduced in the Budget Session of Parliament, beginning February 2026.
If passed, the legislation will provide an unambiguous statutory foundation for Amaravati, removing the last legal hurdle that opponents of the project had repeatedly invoked during the previous YSR Congress Party regime.
Union Minister of State for Rural Development and Communications Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani exuded confidence that the amendment is now inevitable.
Addressing media persons at his New Delhi office on Thursday, 11 December, the Guntur MP declared, “There is absolutely no turning back. Amaravati is the legal and designated capital of Andhra Pradesh. Even if a dozen Jagan Reddys join hands, they cannot stop this Bill anymore.”
Pemmasani launched a sharp attack on former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, accusing him of running a sustained disinformation campaign against Amaravati through friendly media houses.
“For five years, he spat venom on Amaravati, tried to kill the dream, and spread fear that the Centre would never agree. Today, the only technical question before the Centre was whether the capital status should be from 2014 or 2024. That clarity has been provided. The Bill is coming – if not in the Winter Session, then definitely in the Budget Session,” he asserted.
The minister highlighted the visible commitment of the Narendra Modi government to Amaravati’s development. In the past 18 months, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has personally laid foundation stones for a string of national-level institutions in the capital region, including:
“Thousands of workers are toiling round-the-clock under floodlights to bring this city to life,” Pemmasani said.
Drawing from his experience of securing approvals for a modest 100-bed Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) hospital in Guntur, he remarked, “If it took dozens of follow-ups and multiple trips to Delhi for one small hospital, imagine the scale of coordination required between the Centre and the State to build an entirely new greenfield capital. This is not child’s play.”
The Amaravati project was originally conceived in 2014–15 under the first Chandrababu Naidu government (2014–2019) as a planned, riverfront capital spread across 217 sq km on the southern bank of the Krishna River.
Singapore firms prepared the master plan, and thousands of farmers pooled 34,000 acres under what was dubbed an innovative scheme.
However, after the YSRCP came to power in 2019, Jagan Mohan Reddy abruptly scrapped Amaravati, proposing instead a controversial “three-capitals” model – Visakhapatnam as executive capital, Amaravati as legislative capital, and Kurnool as judicial capital.
The move triggered prolonged litigation, farmer protests, and international arbitration cases by Singapore consortium partners who had already invested in planning and early infrastructure.
The Telugu Desam Party’s landslide victory in the June 2024 Assembly elections, alongside its allies in the NDA, brought Naidu back as the chief minister and revived Amaravati’s fortunes.
Since then, construction activity has resumed at a frenetic pace, with the State government allocating ₹15,000 crore in the 2025–26 budget exclusively for capital region infrastructure.
The proposed amendment will retrospectively validate all administrative and budgetary actions taken by the Andhra Pradesh government from 2 June 2024, treating Amaravati as the de jure capital.
Politically, the development is being seen as a major victory for the TDP-BJP-Jana Sena alliance and a corresponding setback for the YSRCP, which had staked its anti-Amaravati stance as a core ideological position.
With Parliament’s Budget Session being less than two months away, all eyes are now on New Delhi. For the people of Andhra Pradesh, a 10-year wait for their own capital city appears to be finally drawing to an end.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
