Hyderabad: Realtors, farmers and other landowners of 84 villages covered under GO No. 111, in areas within a 10-km radius of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar, are waiting with bated breath for land prices to skyrocket after the state Cabinet decided to scrap the GO last Thursday.
Official sources in the stamps and registrations department said that land transactions in these villages, all located in seven mandals of the erstwhile undivided Ranga Reddy district, came down in the past three days and that the situation would continue until the government gives clarity on guidelines for granting approvals to undertake construction activities.
Landowners in the area said that the GO was in place since 1996 and now that it has been repealed, they would be able to sell their lands for high prices once the state government issues guidelines for granting layout approvals.
Further, realtors, farmers and landowners are busy setting up fences to prevent encroachments on their land parcels, given the anticipated demand for land for construction and related activities.
Villages located around the twin lakes are famous for the city’s ‘farmhouse culture’ as no construction activity was allowed for the past three decades.
People, especially from the city, preferred to purchase lands and construct farmhouses in these villages to spend weekends in serene locations. With this, the roads leading to these villages used to witness heavy traffic on weekends.
With the state government now deciding to extend HMDA rules to grant approvals for setting up residential projects, commercial projects and industries, landowners have adopted a wait-and-watch policy for clarity.
Officials said that this has resulted in a steep decline in land transactions in these villages. The sub-registrar offices, which used to witness nearly 200 land transactions every day, are now registering land transactions in just single or double digits since Thursday.
Over the past three days, the sub-registrar office in Shamshabad mandal registered 19 transactions on May 18, eight transactions on May 19 and 43 transactions on May 20, pertaining to the registration of plots.
With regard to agricultural lands, nine transactions were reported on May 18, one on May 19 and 20 on May 20.
This is in stark contrast to the 210-250 transactions of agricultural and non-agricultural lands logged per day in Shamshabad mandal before the GO No. 111 was scrapped.
However, environmentalists and farmers also raised concerns that farmhouses and horticulture centres cultivating vegetables and fruits would vanish with a real estate boom.
They said that fruits and vegetables produced in these villages cater to the needs of the city, drawing a parallel with Medchal, which was once famous for horticulture crops in the 1990s, turning into a concrete jungle due to the realty boom.
