Singapore Consortium closes Amaravati project

In another huge blow to development of Amaravati as the Andhra Pradesh state capital, a consortium of Singapore companies closed the Amaravati Capital City Startup Project.

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal and Urban Development, Botsa Satyanarayana on Tuesday said the "project was called-off with mutual consent after there was no satisfactory answer to the concerns we have raised".

"We had asked the Singapore Consortium (comprising Ascendas Singbridge Pte Ltd and Sembcorp Development Ltd) about the benefits the state would get out of the project and why the delay in the project," the minister said.

He claimed that there was no progress in the required measure and set parameters in the capital area region.

Satyanarayana said that how the state will benefit out of the project was a genuine concern but a satisfactory reply was not forthcoming.

"The work has not begun in the desired pace in the start-up area and other basic formalities were not completed which was of a great concern to us."

The minister said during the past four years the Consortium did not undertake tangible work while other institutions like VIT, SRM and Amrutha utilized the land allotted to them for the intended purpose and colleges were built during that period.

Earlier, the Singapore government acknowledged the termination of the project by the state government, which issued an order to this effect on Tuesday

"The Singapore Consortium was appointed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2017 to help master develop the 6.84 start-up area of its new capital city Amaravati. We note that the newly elected Government of Andhra Pradesh has decided not to proceed with the start-up area, given its other priorities for the state," Singapore Government's Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran said in a statement.

The agreement for the project was signed when N. Chandrababu Naidu was the Chief Minister.

His Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lost power to YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in the elections held in April.

Ever since the new government led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power, the development works in Amaravati have come to a halt as it has decided to review all major projects, citing alleged irregularities by the previous government in awarding them.

( With inputs from IANS )