Hyderabad: The land at Banjara Hills which the state is proposing to sell is the only vacant land that is available in acres for the government in the city as of now and all the rest exist in small bits and parcels in square yards, which is not easy to sell. With this, the government has high hopes on this 15-acre site to garner Rs 600 crore at one go.
Following directives from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to identify vacant government lands in the city last year, the Hyderabad district administration conducted a thorough survey and submitted a report to the government recently.
A senior revenue official, said, “The government had earlier proposed to allot three acres each to commercial taxes department to set up its headquarters and an ITI College in the same site. But now, they have been withdrawn and the entire 15-acres would be put up for sale.”
The government has been waiting for over a year now to sell the lands to mobilise funds to implement its flagship programmes, especially to construct 2BHK houses for the poor, which remains the major poll promise of the TRS.
However, the slowdown in the realty sector had forced the government to put land sale on hold for a year and with property transactions picking up since April this year across the state, the government feels that the time is ripe to cash in on the realty boom, especially in Hyderabad, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts.
In the last year’s budget (2014-15), the government had estimated to earn Rs 6,500 crore through sale of lands, but realised nothing as no sale was done due to slowdown in the realty sector.
In the latest budget (2015-16), this target has been raised to Rs 13,500 crore, by taking up both land sale and regularisation. In the next phase, the government will auction small bits in 24 parcels accounting for five acres in all.
These small bits are located in various revenue mandals in city, namely Khairatabad (18,889 sq. yards), Asifnagar (1,200 sq. yards), Secunderabad (1,021 sq.yards), Amberpet (418 sq. yards), Musheerabad (404 sq. yards) and Saidabad (377.9) sq. yards. The state expects to earn Rs 40.74 crore through them.
