Telangana treads cautiously on joint venture projects in Hyderabad, RR district
Hyderabad: The TS government in treading a cautious path on taking up joint venture projects in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts in various sectors as a majority of the JV projects taken up earlier by governments in undivided AP had either failed to take off or landed in legal tangles.
Most of the companies are interested in taking up JV projects only in Hyderabad and RR districts, considering the high prices of land in these two districts. However, the projects are not moving forward later and government is struggling to cancel MoUs and come out of JV projects due to legal issues. Most of the infrastructure companies are coming forward to execute JV projects in partnership with the government.
“Companies feel that JV projects would be a safe bet as state government itself remains the joint venture partner. It would be easy for companies to secure various approvals to execute the project with the government as a partner. They would get land allotted at subsidised rate s in a preferred location and for all this, the companies need to offer a minor stake to government in the project,” said an official of infrastructure and investments department.
Of the JVs taken up in Hyderabad and RR districts by previous governments, the Hitec City, Mindspace project, Integrated Township and Convention Centre projects in Cyberabad were the most successful.
However, JVs like Fab City and Reliance Trade Tower & Business District remain a major disappointment with the projects not taking off even after almost a decade, resulting in hundreds of acres of valuable land getting stuck and the government remaining helpless in taking over these lands due to legal issues.
Over a dozen JV housing projects also remain pending over a decade, causing major financial loss to government as private partners failed to pay government’s share.
“For this reason, companies coming forward to take up JV projects are being discouraged and instead being offered more sops and concessions to enable them to take up projects on their own. We had bad experience with JVs started by previous governments earlier and the TRS government wants to avoid this kind of situation in future projects,” the official said.
