VIJAYAWADA: The AP state is one step closer to realising its dream of having a world class green-field capital city on the banks of River Krishna with the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, clearing Swiss Challenge route for taking up its construction here on Friday.
The cabinet approved the decision to entrust the capital project to a consortium of two Singapore based companies which will have 58 per cent stake while the remaining 42 per cent will be with Amaravati Development Company which the state government has constituted to work with the consortium in a partnership arrangement.
"Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp are the two Singapore-based companies to which the capital project will be entrusted and the Swiss Challenge option would be kept open for specific period for any other company to challenge the bid of the consortium. If no one turns up, the consortium will have partnership with Amaravati Development Company," Chief Minister N Chandrabu Naidu said, briefing the cabinet decision to the media persons.
"We want the consortium to get cracking from latest by August 15," Naidu said adding that it has been decided to allot 1,691 acres to the consortium for taking up the Amaravati capital project. To begin with 50 acres of land will be given to them at a nominal price or free of cost for them to take up construction of iconic building. Before the commencement of the work, the project proposal will be cleared by the cabinet.
He said in the first phase, the government would allot 200 acres to the consortium at the rate of Rs. 4 crore per acre and it is proposed to develop the capital project in total of three phases. The price of the land would be fixed for the second and third phases depending on the prevailing market price then.
Referring to the procedure followed for adopting the Swiss challenge route, the chief minister said that after going through the relevant acts and provisions it had been decided that the Swiss Challenge method could be used for construction of capital city. In accordance with the AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2001, the proposal was first vetted and then it was again studied keeping in view the CRDA Act. "I, as chairman of the CRDA, cleared the proposal and sent it to the chief secretary who in turn went through it thoroughly and after eliciting legal opinion and then circulating the file among the departments concerned, put it up to the cabinet for final clearance," Naidu said.
He said without understanding the process involved in sending a proposal to the cabinet, the media had erroneously reported that the Chief Secretary had sent the file which came to him straight from the Chief Minister for legal opinion and that there were differences between them. "The chief secretary only followed the procedure. There is nothing to be read in between the lines," the chief minister said as chief secretary SP Tucker who was present at the media briefing was all in smiles.
By another decision, the cabinet cleared the proposal for constitution of Urban Township and Infrastructure Corporation to ease the problem of housing for those who live in towns and cities.
Land allotments:
For location of Indo - UK Health Institute, 150 acres had been allotted in Amaravati at a price of Rs.50 lakh per acre. The cabinet also allotted 200 acres for Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) at the price of Rs.50 lakh per are, 50 acres for National Institute of Tool Design, 937 acres in Madugula Mandal in Visakhapatnam district for location of DRDO project,286 acres land to APIIC at the price of of Rs.10 lakh pare acre for location of Multi Model Logistic Park in Valluru in Anakapalli mandal in Visakhapatanm district.
The cabinet cleared another proposal to remove the requirement of NOC for the ex-servicemen if they want to sell the lands allotted to them after 10 years. The cabinet also approved Swiss Challenge route for converting Kakinada port into a commercial port.