Telangana govt buildings sale: Chandrababu's Lake View Guest house Could Be KCR's next target

Telengana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao has finally understood the advantage of prime land in the state capital as an asset for infrastructure development programs. He is more or less doing a YSR in disposing prime land for advantage though in a different pattern, say his aides.

The writing is clear on the wall for KCR that he needs nearly Rs.10,000 crore for the water grid and another Rs.6500 crore for Kakatiya Mission programs. He does not want to raise any public debt as it could be more an impediment in future and place hurdles in his mega infrastructure programs for the state - roads, sports city , smart city, film city, Pharma city etc.

The Telangana government has set a target of 9000 Crore in its first budget through selling of lands. They include prime land of Government guest houses in capital city and also the district towns whose valuation is assessed at Rs. 17,000 crore worth. There were huge irrigation, R & B and Panchayat guest houses in all the districts and border towns.

Sources in R & B ministry say that government Telangana has zeroed in on offices at Basheerbagh, Khairatabad, Panjagutta, Himayatnagar, Barkatpura, Amberpet, Erramanzil, Masab Tank, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Abids, Lakdi-ka-Pul, SR Nagar, RTC Crossroads and Nampally. EVen the present camp office of KCR could be hired out to a Restro or a resort like concern as KCR is not happy about living there.

Majority of these offices are located along the main roads and the government feels that they will fetch huge prices if auctioned and most of them are also housing central government and also AP government offices etc . As per the AP Reorganization ACt, Hyderabad is a joint capital of both the telugu state for ten years. But that does not mean that AP government could perpetuate its operations from Telengana Government buildings. There is a move to demand rent from the AP government for operating in Telengana buildings other than the Secretariat and the Police HQ and also the CM's camp office .

The Government is also considering the sale of Lake View Guest House. As Chandrababu Naidu is using his own residence as camp office and has moved his residence to a farm house in Rajendernagar area.The T govt has sought opinion of the Governor on the issue as it may trigger controversy as it is already allocated to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in the common capital. "But how can we have more than one camp office in Hyderabad?" Ask officials in Telangana CMO.

Both KCR and the GAD officials have a clear opinion that all the government offices are now cluttered all over city and there was a need to streamline them under one roof - either at the huge campus of University of Hyderabad or in the Erragadda chest hospital campus where the Government aims to build 30 to 100 floor sky scrappers. "We will use the present buildings in prime locations for commercial purposes, auction them and raise funds for public welfare and development activites," says KCR.