The AP-Capital Region Development Authority (AP-CRDA) has served a legal notice on the Japanese architecture firm Maki and Associates (M&A) warning of appropriate action including punitive damages amounting to Rs. 100 crore if it did not refrain from making incorrect statements and indulging in activities that affect the CRDA’s reputation and hamper its efforts in implementing the Amaravati Government Complex (AGC) project.

Advocates J. Sagar Associates said in the notice issued in the names of the ‘Maki and Associates Represented by its Principal Fumihiko Maki’ and ‘Fumihiko Maki, Principal’ that the statements and views expressed in an article published inArchitectural Digest — https://www.architecturaldigest.in — on the elimination of the M&A from the project, were derogatory and aimed at intentionally spreading misinformation on the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) and the CRDA to tarnish their reputation.

Mr. Maki observed that the M&A had ‘endured an unjustified removal as the master architects for AGC despite winning an international competition for the same in March 2016’ and made serious allegations against the CRDA.

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J. Sagar Associates further said the various averments in the articles wherein doubts were expressed and questions raised on the credibility of its client (CRDA) and transparency in the process of the termination of M&A and also in appointing Foster + Partners and Hafeez Contractor consortium as the Master Architect had no legal basis and were made arbitrarily not only to damage the CRDA’s image but also malign the reputation of the GoAP and ultimately justify it (M&A)’s competence in executing the said project.

The M&A was also faulted for drawing an unreasonable comparison between the Governments of A.P. and Bihar with regard to the manner in which it (M&A) sought to execute the AGC and successfully accomplished a similar task in Bihar.