HYDERABAD: After going through the capital region blueprint prepared by Singapore agencies, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is in the island nation on a two-day visit, suggested a few changes to it keeping in mind the State’s requirements. Stating that the region should have two ring roads and several radial roads connecting small towns to the core capital, Naidu reportedly told the Singapore agencies on Monday to incorporate these changes in phase-2 and phase-3 master plans.
The Singapore firms informed Naidu they would prepare the final master plan for the capital city, incorporating his suggestions, in six-eight weeks and hand it over to him by June. “The AP and Singapore delegations have decided to meet in the next six-eight weeks. The next stage will be seed capital planning,” the Chief Minister’s Office said in a press release.
Earlier, Singapore’s second minister for trade and industry S Iswaran handed over the first phase master plan to Naidu. “Singapore is happy to complete and hand over to the AP government the capital region plan on schedule. We look forward to work closely with the AP government for the timely completion of the next two phases of the master plan,” Iswaran said, adding that Singapore has the opportunity to build a world-class capital for AP. “We are quite impressed with Chief Minister Naidu and his team’s energy,” he remarked.
The first phase of the master plan essentially deals with the economic growth of the 7,325-square km capital region. In fact, the phase-1 master plan for the entire capital region was presented by the Chief Minister during his interaction with Japanese investors held here a few days ago. It was reported in these columns earlier that the draft blueprint resembles that of Hyderabad, where all the development is concentrated in and around the city. As per phase-1 master plan, industrial clusters and townships will come up in and around the new capital. Naidu himself said, “Vijayawada could be a business and trading hub while Nandigama could be a pharma hub, Gannavaram a value-added economic hub and Amaravathi could emerge as a tourism hub.”
Naidu also met with industrialists during the day and highlighted potential sectors for investment. “Infrastructure, ports & shipping, telecommunications, smart cities, transportation, water management and urban planning are some of the areas of collaboration,” Naidu said.