Start-up Area project not feasible: Minister Buggana Rajendernath

Amaravati: The Start-up Area Project within Amaravati city was closed as it was not found feasible and the Singapore Consortium and the State Government had mutually agreed to call it off, explained Finance Minister, Buggana Rajendernath Reddy in a statement on Wednesday.

He said it was not found feasible to take up such a huge project which involved huge investment which do not match the proposed development.

The Project, was proposed to develop an area of about 1691 acres by a company called Amaravati Development Partners Limited which in turn consisted of a few Singapore companies namely Ascendas Singbridge and Simbcorp and Amaravati Development Corporation belonging to the AP Government.

The proposal was that the Singapore Consortium would have an equity of 58% of Singapore Consortium and 42% of the Amaravati Development Corporation. After deliberations and discussions between both parties, it was decided to close this project.

During the deliberations, it was realized that this roughly 1700 acres is a small part of the huge city, which was proposed to be developed. The huge city along with the area around it which comprises the CRDA, is about 217 sq.km, which is roughly about two times size of Mumbai including Navi Mumbai and suburbs.

He said, "Within this CRDA, there again is a city called Amaravati, which again is roughly about one lakh acres. It was proposed to acquire 35,000 acres of fertile land belonging to various owners by way of land pooling and about 10,000 acres of government land. It was also proposed to acquire over 40,000 acres of forest land by deforesting the existing forest for which the then AP government had requested the Government of India to deforest it. This Amaravati city is a part of the CRDA and this is about 1700 acres within the one lakh acres."

"During deliberations, it was realized that it requires about Rs 2 lakh crores of money to develop that one lakh acres which is the size of state annual budget. Unless that amount is spent and the whole area is developed there is no meaning of having a business district in it," he said.

"One can understand that the project would take decades and decades to be completed and which cannot be done within a span of five years. Neither the time permits nor even the finances permit this sort of development in such a short time. The government of AP has now realized the various other requirements of the state today like infrastructure development of health, industries, employment to youth and the holistic development of the entire state with 13 districts."

"In this scenario, it was realized that the development of 1700 acres alone is not as easy as was thought of by the previous government which one can say is an impossible task. So that is how it was decided to wind up the company and it is in the best interests of the state. At the same time, the Singapore company which is represented by the ministry of trade and industry, Singapore, has released a press note where it says, in this instance, the closure of the consortium does not impact their investments in India," he said.