A Division Bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Durga Prasada Rao on Wednesday was informed by the AP government that it was withdrawing the notification issued on July 17, 2016, inviting competing counter challenging proposals for construction of seed capital area in joint venture with the CRDA in Amaravati. AP Advocate-General Dammalapati Srinivas conveyed the government’s decision to the special Bench when it assembled in the afternoon. The Bench then closed the litigation declaring that the issues raised in the writ petition are left open.
The Bench was dealing with writ appeals filed by the government and the CRDA challenging the order of single judge who stayed all further proceedings regarding awarding of a contract to build start-up area of Amaravati. The single judge granted a stay in two writ petitions filed questioning the Swiss Challenge method adopted by the government based on a proposal given by a Singapore consortium.
In May 2015, the AP government declared that the Swiss Challenge method would be adopted. In October 2015, Original Project Proponent (OPP) Ascendas-Singbridge Pvt. Ltd. and Sembcorp Development Ltd. submitted proposals for development of seed capital area of 16.9 sq. km which was revised in March 2016. The AP government approved the proposal for 6.84 sq km within the seed capital area in joint venture with CRDA in the first week of July. An advertisement was issued on July 17, inviting competing counter challenging proposals. This was challenged by Aditya Constructions and another. On Sept. 12, the single judge stayed the whole process declaring that the rules were violated.
