New township on Hyderabad outskirts to boost realty

Hyderabad: Real estate industry has a major role to play in the development and success of any international city, believes the Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Barely two months after forming the first government in Telangana, KCR dished out a slew of programs and policies that were to benefit the real estate sector with a particular focus on Hyderabad.

Some of the highlights were abolition of the value added tax (VAT), extension of the single-window clearance system for the industrial sector, promises to remove encroachments that waterlogged roads and colonies, special growth clusters along the ORR and plans of building 4-lane roads linking east-west, north-south corridors in the next five years.

The CM's vision and priorities seemed to be in the right direction with policies that sought to help out the realtors such removal of double taxation and rationalisation of seigniorage fee to Rs.3 per sft besides helping out the daily commuter by easing traffic congestion and providing better quality roads, street lights and storm water drains.

The chief minister seemed determined to place Hyderabad on the list of international cities that attracted a cosmopolitan crowd and investment. His plans however did not seem to go as well as he would have intended. There is a regressive slump in the real estate market as a result of capital outflow to the real estate sector of the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. The investor sentiment of watch and wait during the days of agitation did not really hop back into a realty frenzy that was initially predicted.

His innovative move to develop the temple town of Yadadri (earlier Yadagiri gutta) backed up by quick marketing for spiritual tourism and a general boost to the tourism industry in Telangana has seen limited response for the skeptical investor. Free housing for the poor has been replaced by low cost housing where the beneficiary bore part of the cost.

4000 acre township near Hyderabad proposed

KCR however seems to be resolute! In a meeting with the captains of the real estate industry on Saturday, KCR invited them to play a participatory role in the development of the industry. He proposed to develop a 4000 acre township on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He wants more focus on greenfield projects and said that the government would play a supportive role in this objective.

The meeting at the CM's camp was attended ex-president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) C.Sekhar Reddy, its Telangana president G.Ramireddy and its Hyderabad president S. Ramireddy.

Focus on skyscrapers, adviced KCR. They will stand as a testimony to a city's progress and development he added. Hyderabad will be surrounded by Health City, Pharma City and Cinema City and since Bengaluru is facing the challenge of overcrowding, companies are now preferring to move to Hyderabad he stated. He invited to the real estate developers to become part of this strategical expansion of the city.

The chief minister revealed that HMDA is working on a report called 'Hyderabad Today and Hyderabad in Future' and wanted the real estate captains to participate and contribute to this report. He pointed out that it was necessary to completely understand Hyderabad before adopting from other cities plans.

It remains to be seen how the real estate developers who are already riding the slump with projects in various stages of development and not enough buyers, will respond to these new initiatives of the government.

E.P.Yesudas