HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) had a crucial year.
In 2017, it successfully managed to present its views before the Supreme Court in the Kokapet land case and got a verdict in its favour.
By getting ownership of 638 acres in Kokapet, the metropolitan body could save Rs 12,000 crore.
The state government transferred these lands to HMDA in 2006 and gave auction permission. Initially, 168 acres were put up for auction fetching it Rs 1,775 crore. But, a few individuals challenged the land ownership and a division bench of High Court ruled in favour of HMDA which was then challenged in the apex court.
The other significant development for the urban body was income tax exemption.
This decision led to exemption of tax dues of Rs 983 crore that was slapped for a 10-year period till 2013-14.
The I-T department claimed revenues from auctions was taxable. But, the authority argued that the amount was deposited with the state government for implementing various welfare schemes and that HMDA had merely facilitated the auctions.
HMDA Commissioner T. Chiranjeevulu had said that an urban development authority got an I-T exemption for the first time in the country.Nearly Rs 280 crore would be refunded, he added.
Section 12AA Registration (Exemptions) pertains to charitable institutions that are exempt from paying tax.
The long pending Uppal Bhagat lands issue was also resolved much to the delight of 600-odd farmers. Nearly 750 acres were acquired for the Metro rail project and sewarage treatment plants more than 10 years ago.
Though the government was ready to offer them compensation, they wanted developed plots in exchange. The urban body allocated plots of different sizes ranging from 150 sq.yards to 1,000 sq.yards and even took up registration process at the end of the year with stamp duty waiver too.
MAUD minister K.T. Rama Rao held the ground-breaking ceremony for two logistics parks at Batasingaram and Mangalpally on city outskirts in October.
He said the government was planning to set up nearly a dozen of logistics parks in the state capital.
The park at Batasingaram would be made on 40 acres with a budget of RS 35 crore, and the Mangalpally one on 22 acres spending Rs 20 crore in the public-private partnership mode.
HMDA planned inaugurating both the parks in the next two years. The logistics parks would offer world-class freight logistic support with warehouses, cold storages and parking facilities. They would act as integrated one-stop facilities for freight operators, third-party service providers and cargo-handling firms.
In 2018, the urban body appeared all set to complete the decade-old ORR (Outer Ring Road) project at Kandlakoya junction which was entangled in legal issues.
Works on the 1.1-km main carriageway and service roads at the Kandlakoya junction were under way and the metropolitan body was planning to thrown it open to traffic in the first half of 2018. With it, the 158-km expressway project would be completed.
