VIJAYAWADA: Commissioner of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Natarajan Gulzar is virtually endowed with the proverbial shot in the arm what with the G.O. Ms. No. 160 of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department, which is said to bestow on municipal commissioners across the State the authority to use vacant lands for commercial purposes without necessarily referring the issue to elected bodies.

And it has come at a time when Mr. Gulzar is gearing up to call for proposals of `expression of interest' to develop the VMC's lands in two places in the city on public-private partnership model.

Brindavan Colony

In a day or two, proposals will be invited to develop lands on both sides of the road at Brindavan Colony and another one at APIIC Colony, near Patamata. The two pieces of land at Brindavan Colony make up 4,000 square yards, while the single plot at APIIC Colony alone is of that size.

A few dilapidated staff quarters of VMC's officers are located on the two pieces of lands at Brindavan Colony, but the plot at APIIC Colony is a vacant one.

Mr. Gulzar says the idea is to have a seven-storey building on one piece of land at Brindavan Colony, in which the upper two floors will be used by the VMC for housing its officers. The remaining floors will be used by the developer. On the piece of land opposite that, the developer will construct an institutional tower for IT companies and small time BPO firms. In the vacant plot at APIIC Colony, an entertainment complex and a shopping mall are expected to come up.

"We can get Rs.5 crores to Rs. 6 crores annually from the institutional tower at Brindavan Colony and Rs.7 crores to Rs. 8 crores from the entertainment complex at APIIC Colony," he says.

From the institutional tower and entertainment complex, the VMC will make money in three forms.

Upfront payment

It will receive a development fee, five per cent of market value of the land as an upfront payment along with a provision to scale it up every year by five per cent, and a share of the royalty that the developer gets from renting out the buildings. From the seven-storey building, the VMC's financial gain will be minimal as the major gain will be the upper floors for its staff.

As it seems, even if the G.O. in question is not made use of to push forward his ideas, Mr. Gulzar can still rely on the State Government to back the proposals if the general body rejects it.

But then it will go through the same rigmarole that the Bandar Road widening has gone through, with the State Government issuing a show-cause notice to the general body and eventually reversing any resolution passed to stop the projects.

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