Civil Society representatives declared that the Hyderabad Metro is a great land robbery. They say that the Govt of AP is giving a land bonanza to the Metro Concessionaire L&T by violating the Concession Agreement and allocating tens of acres of land worth hundreds of crores of rupees in the core city.
The activists informed media that even when 20% of the metro works are not completed, 71.39 acres of prime lands have already been allocated in excess of what is mentioned in Agreement.
Addressing the media in Hyderabad today, civil society representatives said:
“This is an outright favour to L&T and a land robbery by the private company. This metro project is grabbing lands from other Departments of the government, including that of the Water Board at Yousufguda, in an authoritarian and high-handed manner. The government has no concern for ensuring water security in future to the people in Yousufguda area. By G.O Ms. No. 152, Revenue (Assignment-III) Department, dated 22 March 2013, the Government of Andhra Pradesh assigned lands of several Departments to the Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD) Department so as to hand over the same to the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. These lands will in turn be transferred to the ultimate beneficiary, the L&T, for its real estate business. The lands to be given to L&T are listed in pages 179-80 of the Concession Agreement. A comparison is given below to show the excess lands given to L&T:
As per the above details, 56.39 acres of excess lands are given to HMR (which in turn will go to L&T) which are not mentioned in the Concession Agreement. By the G.O.Ms.No.123 dated 28.08.2012 of Industries and Commerce (Inf) Department, 15 acres of land in Raidurg village, Serilingampally mandal has been allocated to HMR. The length of the metro corridor 3 has been extended from Shilparamam to Raidurg to take these lands.
Here is what the activists demand
“We have been arguing from the very beginning that this metro project is a real estate and land grabbing project in the garb of promoting public transportation, and it will continue to grab more and more lands as time passes. The govt is bending backwards to favour the real estate business of the L&T. We condemn such a largesse of public lands to L&T in total violation of the Agreement. The govt is also committing a perfidy by forcibly taking lands from other Departments and hand over them to the L&T. We demand that the Chief Secretary, Dr. P.K. Mohanty, who is heading the Special Task Force (STF) on Hyderabad Metro Rail project should intervene in this matter and rescind the Government Orders mentioned above allocating excess lands in violation of the Agreement. The lands should be reverted back to their former Departments. He should further take measures to ensure transparency and accountability in the affairs of the metro project unlike the opaqueness at present. The designs of all the metro stations should be displayed on the websites of HMR and L&T.