Amaravati still under construction, but Quantum Valley project already luring deep tech startups, scientists

It is a vast barren land where earthmovers are crawling in deep foundation pits, iron poles are poking out of construction sites and welders in hard hats are hunched over at work. There couldn’t have been a more unlikely place to dream up the next frontier of technology.

But in Amaravati, the newly anointed, under-construction capital city of Andhra Pradesh, over a hundred people are working on quantum computing—an emerging, experimental technology that is far more powerful than traditional computing and can enable extraordinary advancements in fields like drug discovery and artificial intelligence.

Amaravati’s ambitious project is a technology park called Quantum Valley—recalling and going one-up in ambition on the storied Silicon Valley in US. It is, like the rest of the place, still a dust bowl. However, startup companies, scientists and engineers have already started to move in on the edges of Amaravati to work in companies that will be part of the Valley.


Pallavi Kayala is an early settler here. The 22-year-old, who is from a village in Guntur district, was working as a digital design engineer on the indigenous 5G test bed project at IIT-Madras, when she chanced upon a job opening in the deeptech company Qbit Force and sent her resume. “I feel lucky to be one of the first few people working in a Quantum Valley company,” says Kayala, who shifted a month ago. She has taken up a room in a girls’ hostel in Gannavaram, sharing space with young women working at HCL and TechMahindra. On weekends, they head to Vijayawada, 20 km away, for shopping and movies.

The quantum technology hub, even in its germinal stage, is attracting scientific brains from across the country and abroad—young engineers and retired scientists in India as well as postdoctoral fellows in US. India’s quantum story is not just taking form in Amaravati, it is also shaping the contours of the state capital.

A CITY BY THE RIVER
Amaravati is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s dream city. In 2014-19, during his earlier stint as CM, he attempted to create a new capital city in Guntur district, on the banks of the Krishna river.

The project got shelved when his Telugu Desam Party lost the 2019 election to YSR Congress. Now, Naidu, back at the helm, has again embarked on building Amaravati, brick by brick. Apart from building a greenfield city from scratch, the challenge is to provide it an economic pivot. Unlike other greenfield capital cities like Nava Raipur and Gandhinagar, Amaravati, spread across 217 sq km, has found one already in Quantum Valley. This is expected to host advanced quantum computing systems and will serve as a hub for research, innovation and collaboration with industries. It would also host India’s first IBM quantum computer.

TOMORROW IS HERE

This is Naidu’s futurescape. While roads and administrative buildings are still taking shape, the Quantum Valley project has taken off. The country’s first state-of-the-art openaccess quantum computer test beds have been developed and housed at th edges of Amaravati.

In these experimental platforms, built using indigenously developed components, researchers and companies can test their quantum computing technologies. At present, researchers have to take their systems abroad for testing and even then the queue is long and the process expensive.

The 1Q test bed and the 1S test bed are signposts of tomorrow. The former, developed by Qubitech and Qbit Force, is now housed at Medha Towers, an IT park near the Gannavaram airport, and the latter is at SRM University on the other side.

A number of deep-tech Indian startups such as Qbit Force, Qubitech, QClairvoyance, Quantum Codon, TriQuanta Labs and Pramatra Space have started operations at their temporary location in Medha Towers.

Says L Venkata Subramaniam, founder of Qbit Force: “I started in Amaravati because it represents a shift for India from being a consumer of technology to becoming a builder of it. What convinced me was the combination of intent, urgency and openness. It was clear that Amaravati was not about committees, reports, or photo opportunities, but about building real systems.

The speed of execution, the ecosystem approach and the focus on enabling talent made it the right place to build.” Engineers are ready to uproot themselves from metros to work here. Kalva Nagalakshmaiah, like Kayala, is an early settler in this quantum land. “I was working in the defence sector in Hyderabad when I got this opportunity. The future of tech is quantum. So I decided to shift to Amaravati,” says the 36-year-old, who is involved in the 1Q testing bed.

An engineer, who has researched on microwave and radio frequency antennae in IIT-Bombay, Nagalakshmaiah says Quantum Valley provides the perfect ground for further research. He and his wife have moved to Kesarapalle village near his workplace. “I hail from a small village near Allagadda town. I am used to living in a small village. And there is Vijayawada, just 15 km away, so we have access to malls and cinema halls. The opportunity to work on this path-breaking technology is unique,” he says, adding that the best scientists are getting involved in India’s quest to build open-access quantum computing test beds.

TECH TAKEOVER
Pawan K Dhar, founder of Quantum Codon, is planning to set up Quantum Biofoundry in Amaravati. He wants to use quantum computing to deliver biological innovations—better medicines and enzymes—at a faster pace. Dhar, who has a doctorate in genetics from Banaras Hindu University, will be moving to Amaravati in the next three months.

“The reason is simple —this is where the action is. There is no equivalent for this in India. My pull factor is the fast pace of work, encouragement by the state government and the possibility of meeting big investors,” says Dhar, who is now based out of Kochi and keeps travelling to Amaravati. The Quantum Valley is also offering a Swades moment for young professionals like Subhash Kalidindi. He and his wife were based out of Newark where he was working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Delaware, when he started applying for jobs back home. With a baby on the way, it was a tough call to move to Amaravati.

But Kalidindi, who now works as a senior scientist and director of operations at Qbit Force, says he has always wanted to give back to his country. While he is spending his entire time, sometimes days on end, in the lab, his expectant wife is living in Visakhapatnam.

If Kalidindi is starting out at Amaravati, 61-year-old Gopal Joshi, a retired scientist, is having his second wind there. He and his wife have moved to SRM University’s guest house. “The desire to indigenise is ingrained in us engineers. Amaravati’s Quantum Valley has provided us this exciting opportunity to offer open access quantum computing testing beds,” says Joshi.

After spending 38 years at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, Joshi had moved to his hometown Jaipur. But a chance meeting with Qbit Force founder Subramaniam brought him to Amaravati and he has decided to make it his new home.

A DREAM & A CHALLENGE
For Chief Minister Naidu, who turned Hyderabad into an IT powerhouse, Amaravati is both a dream and a challenge. It is conceived as a polycentric city structured around nine distinct, theme-based precincts—Government City (with secretariat and legislature), Justice City (with high court), Finance City, Knowledge City (with educational institutions), Health City (with hospitals), Sports City, Tourism City (leisure destinations), Electronics City (with tech startups) and Media City (with digital media enterprises).

Nara Lokesh, IT and electronics minister and Naidu’s son, says, “After the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, we needed a nerve centre that reflects our aspirations. Chandrababu Naiduji envisioned Amaravati as a people’s capital.”

The final push for Amaravati came with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Act in April which recognised it as the new capital of the state. “By formally recognising Amaravati, we remove ambiguity and send a strong signal of policy continuity. Once a capital is backed by statutory clarity, it reduces perceived risk and unlocks long-term capital—from infrastructure funds to real estate. Legal sanctity translates directly into financial confidence,” says Lokesh.

PULL FACTOR?
Can Amaravati attract people to settle in as it did the first group of engineers and scientists? Suptendu P Biswas, architect and urban planner, says, “Greenfield cities need a pivot—it has to be an economic engine that produces jobs, attracts people and sustains everyday social life. Amaravati’s challenge is socioeconomic viability. Planned across a large area, it risks becoming spatially thin, with costly infrastructure preceding settlement.”

Biswas says the capital’s proximity to Vijayawada and Guntur, which are older and stronger economic centres, further weakens the residential pull of Amaravati. “Since commuting can substitute for settlement, Amaravati needs compelling economic drivers and sufficient functional density to sustain everyday urban life.”

Even as Amaravati is being built, Hyderabad is home for many political leaders and bureaucrats. Every Friday, they fly from the temporary capital of Vijayawada to Hyderabad. Weaning them from Hyderabad and settling them in Amaravati will remain a Herculean task for Naidu.

Says Lokesh: “Transitions of this scale require both administrative push and social infrastructure. We are building housing, schools, healthcare and urban amenities. Over time, Amaravati will become the natural nerve centre—not by compulsion, but by convenience and quality of life. We are building an entire ecosystem for urban living.”

Like Lokesh, Kayala is hopeful.

Daughter of an autorickshaw driver who scored a perfect 600 in Class X and was chosen by the government for an integrated BTech at an IIIT, Kayala knows what hope looks like. “HITEC City in Hyderabad was small when it started but look at it now. Quantum Valley will grow like that and we will be the early settlers.”