Chandrababu Naidu inaugurates Potti Sriramulu statue in Amaravati

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday (March 16) unveiled a 58-foot bronze statue of Amarjeevi Potti Sriramulu at Shakhamuru in Amaravati, marking the 125th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter who sacrificed his life for the formation of a separate Andhra State.

The statue, named “Amarajeevi – Statue of Sacrifice,” has been installed in a 6.80-acre park at Shakhamuru. The height of the statue symbolically represents Sriramulu’s historic 58-day fast unto death that eventually led to the creation of Andhra State in 1953.

Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, Minister for IT and Education Nara Lokesh, and president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh unit P. V. N. Madhav, along with several Ministers and public representatives, participated in the unveiling ceremony and paid floral tributes to Amarjeevi.

Officials said the statue is the first major monumental sculpture to be established in Amaravati. The structure was built using about 26 tonnes of bronze and 42 tonnes of iron framework, and the first phase of the project was completed in a record six-month period.

The project will be expanded in the second phase with the construction of a museum, an auditorium, and skill development centres around the statue complex, aimed at promoting public awareness about the life and sacrifices of Amarjeevi Potti Sriramulu.

With the unveiling of the statue, the State government marked another milestone in the development of Amaravati as the capital city. The project is the second major initiative inaugurated by the Chief Minister in Amaravati, after the recent opening of the administrative building of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), which now houses several heads of departments (HoDs) of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department in the State.