Hyderabad: The Telangana government is planning to seek “advance payment” from government employees to finish construction of the incomplete Rajiv Swagruha flats that were started in 2007 in Bandlaguda to provide affordable house for the middle class.
The government is in favour of selling the unsold flats to its employees at a cheaper rate of Rs 1,900 per sq. feet against the market price of Rs 2,500.
However, 1,928 flats are incomplete and Rs 350 crore is needed to complete them. Officials cite increase in prices of cement, sand, steel and other raw materials since 2007 for the additional expenditure.
Besides, additional money has to be spent to provide infrastructure facilities like roads, drainage, parks, water etc.
The government now wants to complete the construction by mobilising funds from employees in the form of advance payments.
But TS employees are not willing to pay advances and want the government to complete the construction on its own.
The then Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government had allotted 25 acre in Bandlaguda to the Rajiv Swagruha Corporation to build flats.
The corporation had planned to build 2,746 flats with an expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore. But so far only 818 flats have been completed by spending Rs 650 crore.
The corporation secured loans of Rs 1,000 crore from five nationalised banks to build the flats and has been paying an interest of Rs 200 crore per year.
However, there were few takers for these flats and the corporation had plunged into financial crisis. Unable to pay the interest, it had transferred 78 flats to banks towards payment of interest. It has managed to sell only 502 flats so far. The other 238 completed flats are still unsold.
The remaining 1,928 flats are in various stages of construction and officials estimate that Rs 350 crore is needed to finish the work. The government now wants to raise Rs 350 crore from employees for the purpose.
Employees meanwhile are apprehensive that their advance payment will be stuck if the corporation fails to deliver the flats especially since many people who had paid the initial amount in 2007 are still running from pillar to post to get possession of their flats.
"Earlier experiences with the corporation have been bad. If the government itself pays the amount for completion, there would be a sense of fear among housing officials to complete the flats on time as they will be answerable to the government. If the employees pay the advance, officials may take them lightly like earlier and delay the project. The investments of employees will then get stuck, " said Mr G. Deviprasad, honorary president of TNGOs Association.
Employees say they are ready to pay the balance amount before taking possession of finished flats.
The government meanwhile is not in a position to allot Rs 350 crore for the project at this stage.
