VIJAYAWADA: Builders in the city are waiting for the bubble of boom in the construction industry to burst. Faced with a piquant situation, which actually boosted their profession, the majority among the fraternity are worried about the rapid pace at which the prices are shooting up.

Their main cause of worry, according to a section of them, is the `outsider' factor. The money that was continuously flowing into the State capital changed its direction after the victory of Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao in the Karimnagar by-election.

The poll outcome forced investors in Hyderabad to apply brakes on their dumping-spree and look towards `safer zones' -- Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.

The unusual rise in the prices of apartments in the city is `deceptive', according to Gadde Rajaling of Developers, a real estate firm.

"The situation is grim and we are at crossroads," he says, attributing the bleak scenario to the sudden entry of `outsiders' in the local real estate arena.

Explaining the cause of his worry, he says nearly 15 to 20 `outsiders' have stormed the city and acquired vast stretches of land for taking up big ventures.

The parties that invested huge amounts of money in Hyderabad are withdrawing it from there and investing the same in various construction projects here, resulting in the astronomical figures of land prices.

A prominent builder in the city has already tasted the bitter fruit of the abnormal price rise.

Tempted to make the best of the trend, he escalated the cost of his three-bedroom apartments from Rs. 30 lakhs to Rs. 35 lakhs for each unit, but finds no takers now.

`Better quality'

Velagapudi Ramakrishna, secretary of the Vijayawada Builders' Association, agrees that the trend is `bad' but does not view it as a threat.

"In terms of quality, local builders are far more superior compared to their counterparts in Hyderabad. I don't see the entry of an outsider as a threat but agree that whatever is happening is not very good."

While builders are jostling with other issues like acute shortage of labour due to increase in construction activity, the price escalation of land and construction material has further compounded their woes.

Is there a remedy for the situation? "We can't do anything except wait for `correction', which is likely to happen within six to eight months from now. But before that, builders in the city will witness a `low phase' in the next three months," predicts Mr. Rajaling.

Left with no alternative, middle class sections are forced to opt for vacant lands on Nuzivid Road, which include areas such as Payakapuram, Kandrika and Singh Nagar, which were, till recently, considered resettlement colonies for the labour.

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