Telangana remains silent on flaws of Raheja

Hyderabad: Despite a recommendation from the Vigilance and Enforcement department, the TS government has not taken any action over “irregularities” reported in the Mindspace Cyberabad project promoted by the K. Raheja Corporation. The irregularities allegedly committed by the company in erstwhile undivided AP resulted in a loss of about Rs 74 crore to the exchequer, the V&E department reported after an inquiry.

The V&E department has submitted its report on July 28, 2011. For the three years, combined AP government did not take any action against the promoter. The Telangana government also did not act against the company after the state was formed in 2014. TS Industrial and Infrastructure Corp MD E. Venkata Narasimha Reddy said the issue was pending with the government. He said unless the government took a decision, action could not be taken.

The then AP government had entered into an MoU with the K. Raheja Corp. to develop and construct complexes for development of information technology and IT enabled services on 115 acres of land — the Mindspace Cyberabad Project — at Madhapur with an investment of Rs 600 crore. Subsequently, an MoU for development of this project on 109.36 acres was entered into between the government and Raheja Corp.

For this purpose, a JV firm was formed by K. Raheja IT Park and AP Industrial and Infrastructure Corp. on August 23, 2003. The project was to be completed in 10 years. Without adopting any tender process, the government selected Raheja Corp. stating that it had experience in such construction, the V&E report said.

Subsequently, KRITPL, on the ground of proper implementation, requested permission to demerge the original company into KRITPL, Sundew Properties and Intime Properties. Agreeing to this, the government advised the company to suggest a suitable supplementary memorandum of agreement. It stated that the original JV firm should be responsible to the government, irrespective of the division of the capital among the three successor companies.

After demerger, the JV firm transferred 97.21 acres out of 109.36 acres to the three demerged firms and sold the balance 12.15 acres to non-IT and ITES sister companies of the Raheja group — Trion Properties, Inorbit mall (7.6 acres) and the Chalet Hotels (4.55 acres) — at Rs 1.5 crore per acre for consideration of Rs 18.23 crore without consulting APIIC.