The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Kokapet lands out of litigant shadow

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Kokapet lands out of litigant shadow

M.L.Melly Maitreyi

HYDERBAD: HUDA authorities have achieved a break-through to the stalemate over Kokapet lands in Rajendranagar mandal with the High Court judgement regarding the title deed dispute over 69-acre ‘Golden Mile’ project going in favour of government.

The Kokapet projects be it the Golden Mile, Empire Project or the IT SEZ- were considered prestigious because of their strategic location close to the Outer Ring road, Manikonda Business district and Hi-Tec city. But dogged by title deed dispute, encroachment by quarrying companies and protests by displaced farmers came as a big setback.

HUDA could neither realise the total amount due to it from bidders nor could developers go ahead with their works. This deal dented its reputation and got reflected in the lukewarm response to its subsequent auctions. Now that the legal issue has been sorted out, bidders of both Golden Mile and Empire Projects were told to pay the dues and take possession of the land. While Golden Mile project auctions yielded Rs.703 crore two years ago, bidders paid part of the amount when the legal obstacles cropped up. One bidder paid the total amount and had even launched work for a hotel project. The HUDA Vice-Chairman K. Jawahar Reddy, said that the demand for house sites for displaced farmers was posed to the government.

Major development

Another major development was HUDA could take possession of the land, part of 100 acre IT SEZ, which continued to be under the control of stone crushers who refused to vacate the land even after the expiry of the lease period. The issue came to light only recently during an inspection by Dr. Reddy along with Director, Mines Department, IT Secretary, Ranga Reddy Collector, APPCB Member Secretary, police and revenue officials. Development work to enable companies like Google and Cognizant to set up their units would begin soon at this IT SEZ expected to generate 35,000 jobs.

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