MAKING A POINT: Women arguing with the HUDA Chairman, D. Sudhir Reddy, at Tarapuri Colony on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority's (HUDA) ambitious Outer Ring Road (ORR) project has become a cause for concern for some who approached authorities for a re-alignment.

The 159-km ORR, being designed with state-of-the-art features, is expected to ease traffic congestion in the city and let vehicles coming from outside by-pass the inner roads.

But those who are set to lose their permanent structures, houses, industrial units and agricultural lands in zones like Hayathnagar and Ghatkesar are persuading HUDA to shift the alignment and save their properties.

Fervent appeal

On Thursday, they waited in groups to represent their plight to the HUDA Chairman, D. Sudhir Reddy, who visited Hayathnagar, Turka Yamjal and Tukkuguda areas along with other HUDA officials.

Be it the salaried class, who constructed houses with loans at Tarapuri Colony near Hayathnagar, rice mill and dairy farm owners in Turka Yamjal, market-yard users and property owners in Tukkuguda or farmers and poultry farm owners at Mungunur, everyone wanted the alignment to be shifted.

"We constructed houses with great difficulty taking loan and spending all our savings. We cannot build our houses again at this stage of our life as our priority now is children's education," said Sowjanya, Mani and several employees residing at Tarapuri Colony. The retired residents here too voiced the same demand.

Residents' contention

"We bought plots by paying Rs. 2,500 per square yard and spent Rs. 8 to 12 lakhs on construction.

The compensation will not be enough to construct new houses," they lamented.

"I have six acres of land. But I'm not able to raise loans for my daughter's wedding as the ORR is passing through my land," said Narasimha Reddy, a farmer of Mungunur.

In Turka Yamjal, the ORR will affect a big dairy farm and three major rice mills.

"We cannot stop our units even for a day as milk supplied by about one lakh farmers is processed and supplied every day.

Besides farmers, thousands will lose their livelihood if we close down the unit," said Mr. Masqati of the dairy farm.

Mr. Sudhir Reddy said a committee would go through the representations and try to accommodate people's interest wherever feasible.

Alignments could not be changed easily as several technicalities were involved. Too many changes in the alignment would also defeat the purpose of the Rs.1,532 crore ORR and increase the project cost, he said.

The committee, comprising the HUDA chairman and vice-chairman, the ORR Project Director and Managing Director of the State Infrastructure Corporation would study the situation and submit a report to the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, within 10 days, he added.

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