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Singavati in making: Chandrababu Naidu trying to woo back lion city govt, investors

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As construction of Amaravati 2.0 is going on in full swing, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is trying to win back the trust of the Singapore government and investors to collaborate in the city's development.

Naidu will undertake a high-level visit to Singapore from June 27 to 30, his first international visit after assuming power. His delegation will include state industries minister TG Bharath, IT minister Nara Lokesh and senior government officials.

Singapore government's agencies had actively participated in developing the idea of Amaravati 1.0 right after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Amaravati was pitched as "India's Singapore" - a sustainable city with cycle tracks, walk-to-work plan and all emergency services within 5 minutes. Naidu partnered with Singapore to bring the country's experience in city design, project management and urban governance to build his dream capital at Amaravati.

The Singapore government's Urban Redevelopment Authority and Surbana Jurong prepared Amaravati's Master Plan. However, the Singapore government had taken a step back with Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP coming to power in 2019 and the capital city project formally being stalled.

With Naidu back in power in June 2024, the plan for the new capital city has been resurrected. While the state government is using the original Master Plan, there is no collaboration with Singapore as of now. Naidu is trying to once again win the confidence of the government and bring back investors, not only for Amaravati but also for the rest of Andhra Pradesh, according to sources.

In 2015, a joint venture between Andhra Pradesh government and Singapore Consortium was floated and was known as Amaravati Development Partners. The state cabinet adopted the Swiss Challenge procurement model in June 2015, which came under judicial scrutiny as Indian companies alleged that the process was tailored to favour the Singapore Consortium. As the state government started the process of land pooling to acquire land, the collaboration process lost considerable steam with senior Andhra officers who were in charge not even attending joint meetings.

Later with Jagan in power, the entire project was stalled. Singapore's reluctance to come back to the table for Amaravati 2.0 comes from the fact that government officials received a lot of flak back home for this "failed" partnership. A study on Amaravati being a failed experiment was conducted by Singapore and is now presented as a case study.
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