Surbana, Jurong International to plan Indian city

HYDERABAD (India) — Surbana International Consultants and Jurong International have been appointed master planners for a new Indian capital city 10 times the size of Singapore, providing more opportunities for Singapore companies seeking further expansion in the world’s second-most-populous country.

The consortium has been tasked with laying out development plans for the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh state and its surrounding region. It will be expected to provide plans covering commercial and residential properties, public facilities, transport and infrastructure in under six months.

The appointment of Surbana and Jurong International as master planners will help Singapore further strengthen its name in India and potentially open the door for more companies to seek opportunities in India, Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said in an interview with Singapore media yesterday.

“I think this is an important thing because if you look at India as a market in general, this is a clear area of need, there’s rapid urbanisation in India ... So it gives us the opportunity to come in and establish ourselves in terms of our credentials and capabilities,” he said. “When you have established the Singapore brand in general, I think that has a clear advantage for our companies from a reputation point of view as they enter the (Indian) market.”

Mr Iswaran, who leaves India today after a four-day visit, had earlier said there is renewed interest from Singapore companies to expand into India, particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in May last year.

This is a sentiment urban solutions consultancy Surbana shares as it refocuses on expanding its portfolio in India following 11 years of bumpy rides with past projects there.

“We’ve been in and out and may have exited during bad times such as during the financial crisis, but in a nutshell, we’re back because we see that things have changed since the last election. The new government’s push is positive enough that we think it’s worthwhile to do more,” said Surbana chief executive Pang Yee Ean.

Last week, Surbana — which secured its first project in India in 2003 — was awarded a project in West Bengal to come up with a conceptual master plan for the Kolkata-Raghunathpur Growth Axis.

But with the Andhra Pradesh capital city project, the prestige and challenges associated with planning a project of this scale will be a lot greater — both for Surbana as a company and Singapore as a country.

A first-of-its-kind collaboration between Singapore and another country, the project — which involves developing land-use plans for more than 7,000 sq km of land, or 10 times the size of Singapore’s 716 sq km — in the Vijayawada-Guntur region is Surbana and Jurong International’s largest collaboration.

Previous projects the two companies have worked on together include the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in China.

Singapore and the Andhra Pradesh state government last month signed a Memorandum of Understanding to draw up a master plan for the Indian state’s new capital city, which it has 10 years to build. Reports put the estimated cost at about 1 trillion rupees (S$21.5 billion).

Hyderabad is the current capital of Andhra Pradesh, which it shares with Telangana.

Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh to form India’s 29th and newest state in June last year.

Planning of the new capital will be done in three stages and impact a population of 49.4 million.

The first stage will involve reviewing existing plans and data to produce an efficient land-use plan that incorporates commercial and residential properties, public facilities, transport and infrastructure, as well as an analysis of demographic and potential economic drivers.

The second stage will see the consortium come up with a concept plan for the capital city spanning 220 sq km that includes proposals for water, power and transport infrastructure development as well as zoning plans.

The final stage will involve developing the core city of around 8 sq km. This will include finer details such as open spaces, pedestrian and traffic circulation.

“The Singapore Government will give a detailed action plan of Stage 1 by mid-February, Stage 2 by the end of April and Stage 3 by the first week of June, (from which we can) start construction,” said Andra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Planning of this scale usually takes at least nine months to complete, the consortium said, noting that the six-month time frame would be a major challenge.

“There will be multiple challenges. The market itself is a challenge, but the state government is committed to helping us make the process more fluid. In such a project, land acquisition is a major component, so we hope that can be sped up too,” said Dr Uma Maheswaran, chief executive of Jurong Consultants (India), a unit of Jurong International.

Specific details on the master plan, including architecture and design — or if it will end up looking like a mini version of Singapore — are as yet unavailable as the companies have just started work on the project, but the aim is to make the city “distinct”, said Dr Maheswaran.

Jurong Consultants has had a presence in India since 2000 and has completed more than 200 projects in 21 cities within India, including industrial and IT parks.

This collaboration between Surbana and Jurong International comes after Temasek Holdings and JTC Corporation announced in September last year plans to merge four of their operating entities, including the two master planners, into a single mega-entity.

In a joint statement then, Temasek and JTC said the merger would provide more scale and increased capacity to take on Asia and other markets.

When contacted by TODAY, spokespersons from both Temasek and JTC said the collaboration was not part of the merger plan.

“Jurong International Holdings and Surbana International Consultants Holdings are subsidiaries of JTC and Temasek, respectively. This collaboration comes as the entities’ own business development and is not part of the merger’s plan,” JTC said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ANGELA TENG