Hyderabad: Citing a severe cash crisis and poor allocation of funds in the state government’s annual budget, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has decided to act as a real estate agency in order to become self-sufficient. The HMDA has decided to sell its land and earn Rs 2,000 crores so that they can take up long-pending projects.
The HMDA got a raw deal in the state budget as they had submitted proposals worth Rs 1,651 crores, but were allocated only Rs 485 crores. This included Rs 250 crores as a loan for developmental activities and Rs 235 crores as loan for the Outer Ring Road.
The allocated amount will not be sufficient even to pay salaries and clear the interest amounts on the loans taken. Citing this, the HMDA has decided to develop its own ventures and sell them according to the current market value, rather than depend on the government. The authority has already decided to develop a new venture on 72 acres in Uppal-Bhagath and intends to sell the remaining 1.16 lakh square yards in the Uppal-Bhagath layout.
Besides this, the authority has also decided to sell a total of 229 plots from various layouts with 1.16 lakh square yards of total area being e-auctioned on April 10. Of them, 88 plots was received by the HMDA as gift deeds from private developers, and 141 are leftover plots from earlier HMDA layouts.
When asked about the same, the HMDA claimed they would garner at least Rs 1,100 crores by selling 68 plots, of 2,000 square metres each, spread over 72 acres in the Uppal-Bhagath new layout and 1.16 lakh square yards of the left-over plots in the old Uppal-Bhagath layout. He said that the authority would also earn about Rs 450 crores through the e-auction. The HMDA official stated that it was too early to know for sure, but the new land pooling scheme has given them the scope to earn Rs 600 crores by pooling lands in Dundigal, Boduppal, Pratapasingaram, Bogaram, Gourelli and Korremula.
He said that most of the plots have received oral consent from the farmers. He added that the HMDA would pool as many as 1,240 acres and develop sophisticated facilities on them. The authority will take consent agreements from land owners to develop roads and other amenities. The ratio of developed land-sharing between the HMDA and land owners will be based on the current market value.
The HMDA further said that a technical committee meeting will be held on April 2 in order to discuss financial sustainability. He mentioned too that the meeting is also likely to discuss long-pending projects.
