Hyderabad: Stepping ahead towards construction of the capital city of Amaravati, the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) invited a Request for a Proposal (RFP) for the development of 6.84 sq. km (1,691 acres) start up area of the city by Public Private Par-tnership (PPP) mode th-rough the Swiss Chall-enge approach under the AP Infrastructure Development Enable (AOIDE) Act, 2001. The CRDA issued a tender notification on Monday to this effect. The last date for submission of bids is 3 pm on September 1, 2016.

The state government has set aside the objections raised by various departments and senior IAS officers and issued a notification as proposed by the Singapore consortium. It has accepted the Swiss Challenge proposal submitted by the Singapore consortium of companies for the Amaravati Development Partner (ADP) and invited competing counter proposals to the one sent by the Singapore consortium through international competitive bidding for the selection of the ADP.

In the tender notification under the Swiss Challenge mode, the APCRDA said that Amaravati was being developed as a greenfield capital city for the state of Andhra Pradesh. The CRDA said that a proposal, along with draft contract agreements, for development of 6.84 sq km of start up area was submitted by the Singapore consortium of Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp and approved by the state government.

Accordingly, the CRDA invited competing counter proposals from eligible prospective bidders for selection as master developer for the start up area.

The state government has to hand over the 6.84 acres of land with infrastructure facilities within six months to the ADP. If there was any delay in handing over the land, the state government has to pay `1.50 crore per month to ADP. After selection of the master developer, the Capital City Development and Management Company (CCDMC) and selected master developer will form the Amaravati Development Partner. In this, the CCDMC will have 42 per cent share and the private company will have 58. 5 share.

The AP government will hold all the responsibility, including payment of termination fee in the concession and development agreement. In the event of termination, the state government has to pay an amount equal to 100 per cent of the debt due and 90 per cent of the share capital of ADP.

The officials opposed reaching an agreement by the government with ADP and suggested that it should be between the ADP and CRDA so that the government would not have to pay the termination fee. But this was ignored by the state government.