Hyderabad:
After five long years, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is all set to wind up the land acquisition process for the Outer Ring Road (ORR). It is planning to end the process in January 2011 by allotting land-to-land compensation to about 2,800 individuals, who game up their land for the project.
The authority has also started posting village-wise details of names of the affected land owners, survey no., extent, compensation paid and structural value on its website. HMDA officials said details of Units 2, 4, 5 and 6 have been posted on the website, while Unit 1 details would be put up soon.
For the 170-kilometre ORR, land acquisition process began in 2005, but gathered momentum only in 2007 after the state government fixed compensation package for farmers losing their valuable land to the ORR.
For ORR Phase I, II-A and II-B projects, the HMDA had acquired nearly 6,100 acres in 85 villages in surrounding areas of the city from 8,000 land owners. In Unit 4, which covers areas like Shamirpet, Thumkunta, Yadgarpally, Cheeryal and Ghatkesar villages and part of Phase II-B, 2,016 property owners lost their land.
Over 80 acres of land — 55 acres in Kandlakoya, four acres in Poppalguda, 10 acres near Muthangi junction, eight acres in Shamirpet and four acres in Keesara areas — are still caught in legal wrangles. Officials hope the court verdict would be out by the time the ORR gets completed in 2012.
Towards land acquisition, nearly Rs 500 crore compensation has already been paid and another Rs 100 crore would have to be paid to land owners in some areas where the urban development authority deposited a part of the compensation in court as the land owners did not come forward to take compensation and denied to give consent. In some cases, there were title disputes between parties, while in some there were no claimants.
At the beginning, officials thought they would need about 8,000 acres of land for ORR and satellite townships along it. The authority even created separate units to acquire land.
However, they dropped the idea of acquiring nearly 2,000 acres for townships following opposition from the people. An acquisition unit, 3, was also withdrawn by HMDA three years ago. “Under land-to-land compensation to 3,600 individuals, 859 people were allotted plots in developed layouts in Shamshabad and Srinagar. The rest would be given plots in Kondapur, Yadgarpally, Thimmaipally and Koheda by January, 2011,” ORR special deputy collector (land acquisition) K Bhaskar said.