Published & Updated as on - 2010-03-07
After doling out land to private parties, Govt finds it
hard to locate land for public purpose
With the number of requests from the Central and
state government agencies for land going up,the Ranga Reddy district
administration is in a dilemma. While the land available in Ibrahimpatnam area
(bhoodan land),close to the city is about 3,000 acres,the demand is for 4,400
acres.
For instance,there is a demand for 3,482 acres
in Bagath village of Ibrahimpatnam alone from the National Security Guards
(NSG),Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),Hyderabad Metropolitan Development
Authority (HMDA) and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation
(APIIC),while just 1,958 acres is available.Agencies like Octopus and APIIC are
also asking for another 1,000 acres in Khalsa village.
The RR district is yet to respond to the demand
of agencies like APIIC andHMDA,sources said. The RR district administration has
already agreed to give 600 acres in survey No 58 of Bagath village to the NSG
to set up its regional centre.
The NSG authorities even agreed to pay Rs 6 lakh
per acre and have already deposited Rs 26 crore. After the NSG,Octopus sought
about 570 acres at Khalsa village for its commando training centre.To this,the
district officials said the land will be transferred to them only on payment of
Rs 6 lakh per acre on the lines of NSG.
Now Octopus officials have requested the home
department to release the amount for getting the required land.
The CRPF too is seeking 50 acres close to NSG to
raise its CRPF Mahila Battalion. The district authorities have advised it to
give a written request to the state government. Meanwhile,the HMDA also joined
the race to acquire land for its future projects like a truck terminal and
integrated township in the prime area at Ibrahimpatnam, for which it sought
about 1,000 acres at Bagath village.
It is also learnt that APIIC managing director B
R Meena has written a letter asking the RR district administration to allot
1,832 acres land at Bagath village and 456 acres land in survey no 1 and 2 at
Khalsa village for development of industrial area and promoting an industrial
park. When contacted,RR district joint collector M Jagan Mohan said: Except for
land allotment to NSG and Octopus,no final decision has been taken on the the
demands from APIIC and HMDA.
Comment :
The important lesson to be learned is about
preserving Govt Land for public purposes. Govt land should not be sold to
private parties, as has been done in Hyderabad (Incidentally hundreds of acres
sold remain undeveloped with Companies like Unitech, DLF, BPTP etc) . If at
all, it should only be leased out. We need to preserve land for future
genrations. The City has to develop for thousands of years more! And if all
Govt land is sold to companies for quick money, how do future generations
manage expansion of public amenities?
Source:TOI 23.02.10
GHMC hopes to cash in on BPS extension
Hyderabad, Feb. 21: The recent decision of the
state government to extend the last date for disposal of the Building
Penalisation Scheme (BPS) turns out to be a boon for the Greater Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation (GHMC) after it got a raw deal in the state Budget for
2010-2011.
The civic body had requested the government to
allocate nearly Rs 700 crore for it in the state Budget, but got only Rs 73
crore. Now, the corporation has set a target of collecting at least Rs 400
crore by disposing of the pending BPS applications.
The government on Wednesday issued G.O. Ms No. 76
stating that the date has been extended.
strictly for disposal of “pending applications”
only and that no fresh or new applications should be accepted. The government
order also came with a rider that after June 30, none of the pending BPS
applications should be disposed of.
A senior GHMC official confirmed that the last
date for clearing pending BPS applications is June 30.
The GHMC received 2.03 lakh BPS applications and
out of this the officials have been able to clear only 87,000 till date.
Another 35,000 applications were declared “ineligible for regularisation” as
they were found to have been constructed on government, Wakf, Urban Land
Ceiling and endowment lands.
“The
financial position of the GHMC is precarious. Though we expected reasonable
allocations for the civic body in the State Budget, what has been given is
meagre. The best alternative to raise revenues now is to ensure that all BPS
applications are cleared. It is a challenge as not all the applicants are
coming forward for regularization proceedings. But we will do it,” a GHMC
official said.
The
GHMC town planning officials will visit the BPS applicants and ask them to pay
penalization charges for disposal of applications.
Source:
DC 21.02.10
HMDA approves the first Integrated Community
Complex Project of 400 Apartments Promoted by Buyers
For the first time in Hyderabad an ambitious
residential project of over Rs.125crore promoted by Buyers Society has been
approved by HMDA on 18th February! The project is coming up at Tellapur, beside
Gachibowli in Hyderabad.
The
Project is promoted by Cyber Employees Welfare Society (CEWS), a motley group
of more than 250 IT employees from IBM to Infosys. The Society was registered
in 2007 when the apartment prices had shot through the roof making it tough for
the salaried to buy homes. Since then, this Society has systematically and
quietly gone ahead by acquiring land, engaging Architects and Consultants and
even built approach road to site, from Gopanapalli. Their effort has now been
acknowledged by HMDA by giving the Project, approval.
There are several interesting aspects in this
project. Most striking one is the fact that the price of the flat is based on
actual cost incurred. There is no developer margin in the price. Hence
effectively buyer gets much higher quality for the same rate compared to buying
from a developer, since every paise paid goes into construction. The project
was pre-sold except for few units. Hence, unlike other new projects, CEWS does
not have any booking risk. The buyers have all gone together as group to SBI
and struck special deal for housing loan. They also engaged in extensive
negotiation with Nagarjuana Construction Company (NCC) to bring price down but
by keeping quality standards very high.
The project is spread over 6.4Acres and has 400
super luxury apartment units. It has extensive amenities including Tennis
Courts, Swimming Pools, Club House etc.
The Project's success is a strong message to
developers to tighten costs and try and match the price and quality of CEWS.
Exclventures 18.02.10
AP High Court stays govt move to take back Fab
City land
Justice R Subhash Reddy of the A P High Court on
Wednesday stayed the move by the state government and Andhra Pradesh Industrial
Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) to take back the 100 acre land given to Sem
India Fab Private Ltd.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Sem India which said that
though the state government allotted 100 acres to it on a nominal lease for 66
years in 2006 in the proposed 1200-acre Fab City in Hyderabad, it is now trying
to take back the land.
The state government earlier issued an order to the APIIC to take back
78 acres land from Sem India as it had not fulfilled any of its conditions as
per the MoU. The state also asked the APIIC to collect Rs 20 lakh per acre for
the rest of the 22 acres from Sem India.
Hyderabad News. TOI 18.02.10
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