Ubuntu12.04 add-architecture i386

Running ubuntu 12.04 64 bit. I am trying to follow the steps written at the end of this page under the Heading : Installing Android SDK compat libraries. I am doing it in order to solve this problem. But when i run the first command

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

it fails and gives the following output

pkg: error: unknown option --add-architecture

Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [*];
Use `dselect' or `aptitude' for user-friendly package management;
Type dpkg -Dhelp for a list of dpkg debug flag values;
Type dpkg --force-help for a list of forcing options;
Type dpkg-deb --help for help about manipulating *.deb files;

Options marked [*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through `less' or `more' !

How can i successfully run this command ? 

make sure the only file present in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/ is "multiarch"

ls /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/

if output is

multiarch

execute the following commands as it is else replace "multiarch" with the name of file present in that directory.

sudo sh -c "echo 'foreign-architecture i386' > /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch"

The above command will add i386 architecture.