After operating out of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s camp office for over a month, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Sunday moved to a new building at Amaravati on a temporary basis. The new building was inaugurated on Sunday by the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The two-storied building located at Nelapadu in Amaravati region has 16 court halls, 12 of them on the first floor. The building costing Rs 150 crore houses a 2.70 lakh square feet office space.
Justice Gogoi arrived at Vijayawada on Saturday, he laid the foundation stone along with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Nelapadu in Guntur district. The interim complex inaugurated on Sunday will house the City Civil Courts. Andhra Pradesh is getting its own court four-and-half years after state bifurcation.
For the past four-and-half years, the AP High Court has been functioning out of the Hyderabad High Court, the presidential order asked the AP High Court to move out of the Hyderabad premises from January 1, 2019. Since then the AP High Court has been functioning out of the Camp Office.
The construction of the actual High Court building which will be located at Justice City in the capital region is yet to start. This permanent High Court will be built on 42 acres of land with a built-up area of 12.2 lakh square feet.
The complex will house 36 court halls in the first phase and will have provisions for adding 24 more court halls in the future. The project is estimated to cost Rs 1,400 crore and will be built by Shapoorji and Pallonji Group, reported The New Indian Express.
The ancillary buildings that will make up Justice City will have support ecosystems like City Courts, tribunals, residences and other facilities. These buildings will be spread out over 450 acres of land. The Justice City project is expected to be completed in two phases, the first phase is expected to be ready by 2022 and the second phase by 2036.