The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to speed up the process of land acquisition on the three corridors ofthe Hyderabad Metro Rail.

Barring two or three stretches like Sultan Bazar-Badi Chowdi and Ameerpet-Greenlands, Yousufguda and Krishnanagar, the GHMC proposes to complete land acquisition for road widening in the next three months for which `200 crore will be required.

Speaking to Express, GHMC Additional Commissioner (Planning) K Dhananjaya Reddy said a time frame has been fixed to complete the process. Nearly 60 percent of the land acquisition on Corridor 1 : Miyapur to LB Nagar (29 km), Corridor 2 : Jubilee Bus Stand to Falaknuma (15 km) and Corridor 3 : Nagole to Shilparamam (28 km) has been completed and for the remaining, the GHMC will negotiate with the property owners, he said.

He said some 400 owners whose properties are going to be affected have approached the High Court and the GHMC is making efforts to get through the judicial process at the earliest.

Giving details of the land acquisition on the three metro corridors, Dhananjaya Reddy said that on Corridor-1, Miyapur to L B Nagar, 184 awards will be issued and properties would be taken over by this month-end. On the Moosapet-Bharatnagar stretch, awards for about 26 properties have been issued and they will be acquired by next week.

From Erragadda to Punjagutta road, the corporation has identified nearly 55 properties which could be acquired either through negotiations or by invoking the land acquisition clause.

Between Punjagutta and Lakdi-ka-pul stretch, GHMC has decided to acquire 27 properties. From Public Gardens to Nampally X Road, 79 properties have been identified and of them, 13 have agreed to part with their land.

The non-assessment of value of illegal buildings in the city has proved costly for the Corporation. The civic body, severely hit by financial crunch, is likely to incur a loss of about Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore.

In a recent inspection conducted by the Revenue Department of the Kochi Corporation, the authorities identified nearly 15,000 illegal structures in the city.

The violations were mainly in the form of  additions to the existing buildings, without obtaining necessary sanction from the civic body.

Apart from extensions, some have even converted the parking areas into commercial spaces.

As per the rule, the buildings that were identified as illegal structures should be regularised within six months.

 The squad which carried out the inspection  submitted its report in February 2013 but the authorities are yet to take steps for serving notices to the owners of the illegal structures.

 According to the Opposition of the Kochi Corporation, the Finance Standing Committee is trying to protect the vested interests of some building owners. “We have raised some serious issues regarding building rule violations by some persons in the past. But neither the Mayor nor his team has bothered to consider our demand for an inquiry,” said Opposition councillor C A Shakkeer. He alleged that the apathy of the ruling front to the issue was evident from the way they have eluded from taking action against the unauthorised buildings and from collecting the penal amount from the violators.

Meanwhile, a top Corporation official said that the decision of the state government to scrap the tax revision plan  was the major reason for the delay in assessing the value of the buildings.

“We have started the numbering process and have issued self-assessment taxation forms to various households after the government announced its plan for a tax revision.”

The tax will be assessed on the basis of Floor Area Ration (FAR) and we have completed the formalities. Meanwhile, the state had reconsidered its decision and we had to leave the whole process halfway through,” he said.

However, the Opposition said that the authorities could have collected the fine, that is threefold of the normal tax, from the violators or at least could have served notices to them.