The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, will be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, officially recognising Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh. A resolution to this effect was passed in the state Assembly on March 28, paving the way for the Bill.

A statement from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s office said it will give statutory clarity to what the TDP-led NDA government has been building toward. With the backing of the BJP and NDA allies, the Bill is expected to pass smoothly.

In the special Assembly session on March 28, Naidu said that legal certainty on the capital issue could be achieved only through suitable amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Accordingly, the Assembly resolved to request the Government of India to amend Section 5 of the Act by including the words “at Amaravati” in sub-section (2), and by expanding the explanation to clarify that Amaravati includes areas notified under the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014.

The amendments to make Amaravati the one and only capital of Andhra Pradesh — and its permanent capital — have been proposed to remove the ambiguity created by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, which had proposed decentralised development and three separate capital cities: Amaravati as the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital, and Kurnool as the judicial capital.

However, during his five years in power from June 2019 to May 2024, Jagan did not take any steps to create the separate capitals, leaving the state effectively without a functional capital city. The capital city development that took place at Amaravati during the Telugu Desam Party’s rule from 2014 to 2019 was abandoned, with buildings left at various stages of construction, turning it into a ghost town.

After returning to power, Chandrababu Naidu vowed not only to complete the capital city but also to expand its scope and scale, proposing an international airport and a major railway junction. The AP Capital Region Development Authority has commenced works worth over Rs 90,000 crore in the capital city region.

In addition to the 34,241 acres pooled from farmers, the government is acquiring another 30,000 acres through land pooling to expand the capital region.

The greenfield Amaravati capital city, as envisaged by Chandrababu Naidu, covers a 217 sq km capital region. The Secretariat, Legislative Complex, High Court building, bungalows for senior IAS and IPS officers, High Court judges, Ministers, MLAs and MLCs, and premium flats for All India Service officers and senior officials are located in Velagapudi village.

Within the larger capital region, the AP government plans to establish nine theme cities — Knowledge City, Health City, Electronics City, Tourism City, Justice City, Media City, Sports City, Finance City, and Government City, the last of which is known as Amaravati. The overall capital region plan proposed by Naidu is a vast 7,420 sq km metropolitan area covering Vijayawada city and its surrounding areas, and the districts of Guntur and Krishna, of which 217 sq km constitutes the capital, Amaravati.