Reengineering a Watery Landscape: Value Struggles in a Greenfield City Project

Abstract

Amaravati, the new state capital of Andhra Pradesh, is a prime example of India’s post-liberalization thrust on infrastructure development and the building of new ‘greenfield cities’ as crucibles of economic growth. These land-hungry projects have reconstituted the meanings and values of land as well as the relations of people and communities to space and place, in multiple ways—creating urban ‘peripheries’ within still largely rural settings. This paper builds on literature on agrarian and frontier urbanisms in south Asia to analyze the frictions, negotiations and struggles that have punctuated this ambitious ‘world-city’ project. Based on ten years of fieldwork on the new capital city project, the paper presents ‘Rajdhani’ as a landscape of value struggles, as the materialities of the riverine landscape challenged the design of the project. Juxtaposing residents’ narratives about the dangers of flooding against the technocratic solutions offered by engineers, the discussion highlights the divergence of development imaginaries through the lens of infrastructure and urban planning