Hyderabad: While the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation along with local leaders are encouraging owners to accept Transferable Development Rights (TDR) for their properties acquired for infrastructure projects, the ground staff are advising them to ask for compensation at current market value instead.
The corporation has issued a mere 323 TDRs in the last 20 years against 8,000 properties which it has acquired for road development and other projects. Apart from a few pockets in Serilingampally, Rajendernagar and Kukatpally in the western parts, there is no demand for TDRs elsewhere.
Sources said that since no money is involved in the TDRs, lower rung officials including assistant city planners, engineering and deputy commissioners are asking property owners to ask for money in lieu of property.
This is in the expectation that they will get their quota of bribes.
Sources said some members of the ground staff recently held a meeting with property owners in the Old City asked them to demand monetary compensation as the TDRs will not be useful. Similar has been the case in Khairatabad, Secunderabad and LB Nagar zones.
Officials claimed that the poor response to TDRs was due to lack of awareness. They said there is no official platform to trade in TDRs.
Citing the same lacunae, middlemen forced some property owners to trade their TDRs at less than market arts.
The TDRs are mostly used in the Kukatpally zone which would lead to further traffic congestion, eating up the greenery and increasing pollution.
TDR purchases in the LB Nagar zone have increased but it is still behind Kukatpally due the land value.
Officials say they will create a common platform for TDRs and hold awareness campaigns for land owners while acquiring their land for civic projects.
