Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority’s ambitious project of building wayside amenities including food courts, hotels and auto malls, has run into a road block with the finance department raising objections to the low rental norms proposed by the urban body.
With thousands of vehicles passing through different ORR stretches daily, HMDA conceived this project to facilitate the commuters as well as create a channel for revenue for the government body.
Apart from food courts, a budget hotel and auto malls, the project also includes the building of large format shopping centres, all centralised in an area of 30 to 40 acres. With Pedda Amberpet, one of the important entry-exit points, having 40 acres of land owned by the HMDA, this is where the project was planned to be initiated.
Since the land would be rented to a private player for a period of 33 years, the urban body engaged the services of a consultant to study the business aspect of the project including expected footfalls and response from nearby areas and institutions. Lengthy discussions were held about food courts in particular and the kind of food stalls to be promoted.
HMDA finalised two locations — Pedda Amberpet (initially) and Bongulur on Srisailam Highway (in the next phase) — for this project. Accordingly a proposal was sent to the municipal administration and urban development department, which then forwarded it to the finance department.
The finance department is learnt to have objected to the low rental tariffs the urban body had proposed for the private players. According to a government order introduced in the combined state, annual rental amount for lands leased to private parties should be ten percent of the market rate of the total land. However, a senior HMDA official explained that their project was different altogether.
“Firstly, we are not leasing land to an institution or an agency. We will select the group through a tender process and then rent the land. Unlike a project in the city, we have no idea about how the response will be to this new project. Also we quoted less than 10 per cent, but the chances are that after floating a tender it might go higher if a company looks at this as a prospectively successful project that would click. So we will explain our view once we receive a letter from the finance department”, he said.
