File photo of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has urged each citizen to buy "e-bricks" at Rs 10 each for new capital Amaravati.
The website "My Brick My Amaravati" was launched by Mr Naidu on Thursday in Vijayawada, which has been his makeshift base since Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and a separate Telangana was carved out in June last year with Hyderabad named as its capital.
In an appeal, Mr Naidu said: "I invite you to join me in building our Praja Rajadhani Amaravati brick by brick."
In less than 24 hours, nearly four lakh "e-bricks" had been bought.
A week from now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the grand inauguration of Amaravati as the new capital of the downsized Andhra Pradesh.
In the run-up to the big day, pujas have begun across the state for the collection of water and mud from anthills from some 16,000 villages.
Amaravati was the historical capital of the Satavahana dynasty in second century AD.
Mr Naidu said that the new Amaravati will be a people's capital, a destination of opportunities and a city of the future.
According to the chief minister, farmers have "voluntarily" parted with 33,000 acres of land for the new capital in the biggest land pooling exercise. Activists and rival parties have accused the government of taking over fertile lands by force. Some farmers have also gone to court.
Opposition leader Jaganmohan reddy has said he will not attend the foundation ceremony and has asked Mr Naidu not to invite him. He alleges that the Chief Minister has violated environment norms, forcibly taken land from farmers and given it to private players just to make commissions.
Mr Naidu's son Nara Lokesh has countered that on Twitter saying it is "unfortunate" that Jagan is making baseless allegations, and that he should instead contribute his ''one lakh crore rupees'' to Amaravati.
The masterplan for the new capital city is being drawn by experts from Singapore.
The government estimates it needs at least 20,000 crores to build the new capital. But the Centre has so far sanctioned only Rs. 1500 crore.