Hyderabad
Five years after the proposal for the development of mega integrated township at Tellapur near Ramachandrapuram, the project will finally take off soon. But the project will come up in 100 acres not in 400 acres as proposed earlier.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has agreed for the revised project proposal and sent it to the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department for approval.
The project developer Tellapur Technocity Pvt Ltd proposed the integrated township at Tellapur by a consortium led by Tishman Speyers and ICICI and Nagarjuna Constructions Company in 2007 along with the erstwhile Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) on revenue sharing basis.
The project costing about Rs 2000 crore includes an SEZ for IT companies, offices and residential space in 400 acre close to the Outer Ring Road (ORR). The project is also about five kilometers from Hitec city and Financial District at Gachibowli. As per the original proposal 30 million built up area was to be provided in the township in eight years for Class A commercial, residential, recreational and mixed use. A special purpose vehicle Tellapur Technocity Pvt Ltd was also formed after taking over the land.
The consortium members took the 400 acres land at the rate of Rs 4.21 crore per acre from the Huda. The developer paid about Rs 420 crore (1/4th ) of the total Rs 1,700 crore amount immediately. The rest of the amount was supposed to be paid within six months.
But the developer did not pay the amount due to slump in the real estate market and also 240 acres allotted for the project is in legal wrangles. The urban development authority also did not insist for the balance amount payment since major part of the allotted land is in litigation.
As the real estate market is recovering slowly for the past one year, Tellapur Technocity representatives mooted the proposal to take up the project but in the 100 acres for which the amount (Rs 420 crore) was already paid in 2007. After the revised proposals were submitted by the developer, it was sent to MA&UD by the HMDA recently.
The erstwhile Huda agreed to provide infrastructure like laying of special road from Wipro to Tellapur project site and Project site to Outer Ring Road at the time of agreement. Since the project is revised, the revenue share to the authority will also come down automatically. It is also proposed to withdraw some conditions like provision of infrastructure to the developer, sources said.
When contacted ORR project director V Samuel Anand Kumar said the state government had asked certain clarifications from the HMDA especially financial implications on the authority due to revised proposal. The details would be provided to the government soon, he said.
Source: The Times of India, Hyderabad