VIJAYAWADA: At a time when the State government is pulling out all the stops to promote Amaravati as the next major tourist destination, private investors do not appear too enthused about investing in the proposed tourism projects in the city. The case in point: the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), owing to a passive response from bidders, has now given a second call to investors for a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the much-touted Amaravati Marina project.
Even though the APCRDA had invited an RFP for the proposed project in March and held pre-bid meetings with prospective investors, only two firms have submitted their proposals till now. “Initially, about 15 firms evinced an interest in the project, but only two filed bids from across the country. We have decided to give the second call as the number of bids filed was lower than we expected,” a senior official explained.
It may be recalled that the project was proposed to be developed in eight acres in Venkatapalem village of the capital region, as the biggest marina in the country. The estimated cost of the project was pegged at Rs 40 crore. Not just the Amaravati Marina project, even a few other projects proposed under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, such as the Sports and Recreation Club, which is a part of the Amaravati Central Park, world-class multipurpose sports hub and others, are in a similar situation..
For the record, the State government projected that Amaravati would contribute six percent and 33 percent of the total domestic and international tourist footfall of AP in 10 years’ time, a few prospective investors are apprehensive that the proposed projects may not be financially viable. However, CRDA officials expressed the confidence that all the PPP projects would take off soon. “It is a normal practice for the prospective bidders to raise a few red flags. It is not right to generalise and say that projects under PPP will run into issues,” another CRDA official said.