Andhra govt scraps startups area development project in Amaravati

The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to shutter the Amaravati Start-Up Area Development Project under which a 6.84 square km area was to be developed as a start-up area in the capital city of Amaravati.

The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra government, which came to power in May, has decided not to proceed with the project given its other priorities for the state, according to the Trade and Industry Ministry of Singapore.

In 2017, a Singapore Consortium was appointed by the last government of AP, led by N Chandrababu Naidu, to help develop the 6.84 square km startup area in Amaravati.

While the reason for shutting the project is not revealed, the AP government has taken the decision to pay attention to other tasks in the state.

Sources close to the development said that the decision is mostly political as the new Andhra CM does not want to continue with any of the previous government's projects.

This is not the first instance where a newly appointed government has decided to not go ahead with the previous government projects.

Earlier, China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had also pulled out of development and other infra projects in the city.

The Jagan-led government has also not paid startups, who were winners of a global startup challenge held last year, the promised prize money announced by the previous government.

In 2018, the Andhra government had announced prize money of about Rs 5.5 crore for six startups - Matisoft Cyber Security Labs, 3Bar Biologics, NeoEYED, Bee Hero, Desolenator and Lapetus Solutions. It has been more than a year now and the state government has continued to keep the startups waiting.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Consortium, who claimed to have lost a few million dollars in the project, has said that the termination of the project would not have any major impact on their investment plans for India.