S'pore consortium given masterbuilder rights to India's Amaravati City start-up area

A SINGAPORE consortium was on Monday given the master development rights to the Amaravati City Start-up Area in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state.

The group - comprising Asia's leading sustainable urban development providers Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp Development, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries - received the contract from the government of Andhra Pradesh at a ceremony held at the Taj Gateway Hotel in Vijayawada.

The ceremony was witnessed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran.

Mr Iswaran, who led a delegation comprising government officials and businessmen to India, also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government to help "set up a process to identify and link economic development opportunities with prospective companies on a regular basis".

Amaravati is the new capital city that the Andhra Pradesh government planned to develop for the newly constituted state. Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp have responded to calls and submitted a joint bid for the development under a Swiss Challenge approach.

The start-up area is in the 20-square-kilometre Seed Development Area of Amaravati City, along the River Krishna waterfront. Spread over 684 hectares, the area will be developed in phases over 15 to 20 years and is expected to create the first centres of activity attracting settlers and investment into capital city.