Singapore to finalise Andhra capital's master plan in 6-8 weeks

Singapore will finalise the master plan for the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh in six to eight weeks, after incorporating some modifications mooted by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

This was decided on Monday, the first day of Naidu's two-day visit to Singapore.

Naidu, who had a breakfast meeting with Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Ambassador-at-Large Gopinath Pillai, also met Singapore's Second Minister for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran.

The Singapore government presented a broad outline plan of the capital region to which the chief minister suggested few modifications.

The master plan will be refined by incorporating these suggestions and modifications in the next six to eight weeks.

Meanwhile, the delegation from Andhra Pradesh gave a detailed presentation on the land pooling process and the various timelines for making the capital ready.

They explained that the capital area has two ring roads and several radial roads connecting various small towns to the core capital region.

Both delegations decided to meet in the next six to eight weeks for planning seed capital.

The chief minister, who is visiting Singapore for the second time in five months, also had a business meeting with industrialists where IE Singapore CEO Teo Eng Chong outlined the opportunities for Singaporean companies in Andhra Pradesh.

Iswaran said that Singapore has the opportunity to build a world-class capital city for the new state of Andhra Pradesh.

Stating that the capital city planning is at the advanced stage, Naidu said that the detailed plan will be out by June 2015. He assured investors that ease of doing business, mega infrastructure projects, targeted policies and transparent governance will be the state's highlights.

He told the industrialists that Vijayawada could be a business and trading hub, Nandigama a pharma hub, Gannavaram as a value-added economic hub and Amaravathi could emerge as a tourism hub.

Two firms from Singapore - Surbana International Consultants and Jurong International - are preparing the master plan for the capital being built in Vijayawada-Guntur region.

According to a MoU signed in December last year, the two firms appointed by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore will draw up a capital region plan for 7,325 km area, a capital city master plan for 125 km of the core of the capital city and a detailed seed development master plan for the construction of the approximately eight sq km first section of the capital city.