The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday issued a G.O. allowing certain amendments to its previous order (No. 170 dated July 4, 2016) paving the way for the invitation of counter challenging proposals for the one submitted by the Ascendas-Singbridge Consortium (ASC) for the development of the start-up area of the seed capital area of Amaravati.
The counter proposals are to be invited by the AP-Capital Region Development Authority (AP-CRDA) through fresh international competitive bidding through the Swiss Challenge method under the A.P. Infrastructure Development Enabling (APIDE) Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016. The CRDA has also been mandated to form a committee for evaluating tenders and report the outcome to the government.
The CRDA Commissioner is also authorised to set up a technical committee, approve the eligibility criteria recommended by it and finalise such tender documents approved by the said committee. It may be noted that the ASC is the Original Project Proponent and the acceptance of its proposals by the Government was contested in the High Court, which had disposed of petitions filed against the revised Swiss Challenge proposal consequent upon the Government communicating its decision to withdraw the Request-for-Proposal (RFP) that was assailed (in the writ petitions) and issue a fresh proposal.
The Government has made changes to the A.P. Infrastructure Development Enabling (APIDE) Act, 2001, and the CRDA submitted that it was in the process of inviting counter proposals as per the amended APIDE Act after petitions were filed in the HC against the revised Swiss Challenge proposal.
It was through G.O No. 170 that the government had approved the proposals of the ASC which is the Original Project Proponent for the start-up area measuring 6.84 square km.
