Hyderabad:: Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader Gudur Narayana Reddy on Wednesday demanded the state government to cancel the toll collection right given to a private company on Outer Ring Road (ORR) as it would cause a lot of loss to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
In a media statement, he said that the decision of the state government was like ‘killing the goose that lays golden eggs and smacks of a scam’. He alleged that the government has given toll collection right to a Mumbai-based company at less than half the price that could be earned in the coming three decades.
He said that the government has given the right to the collection of toll on ORR on Toll Operate and Transfer method to the private company at a rate of Rs 7,380 crores for 30 years whereas it is estimated that about Rs 17,000 crores could be earned in 30 years.
Narayana Reddy alleged that money has changed hands in accepting the bid of the private company and the hand of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi was behind it. He said that the whole process seems to be a ‘big scam’.
He said that the state government has given the right to collect tolls on Outer Ring Road to a private company on the TOT method for Rs 7,380 crores for three decades. “It means that the company would make a profit of more than Rs 10,000 crores in the next three decades,” he said.
He further stated that while the government was supposed to give toll collection right only for two to four years, in this instant case it has given it for 30 years. “The BRS government which would be out of power in five months has usurped the rights of the next six governments. It was nothing but undemocratic and unjustifiable act of BRS,” Narayana Reddy said.
The BJP leader remarked, “The Outer Ring Road is not the property of the grandfather of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to take decisions at his will. He does not have any right to take decisions on future projects.”
He said that at present the estimated revenue through toll collection on ORR was about Rs 540 crores per annum. “It is likely to go up to Rs 650 crores per annum by 2033. The average revenue per decade would be Rs 5,200 crores,” he claimed.
“But as the government has accepted the low price offered by the Mumbai-based company to secure the right, the revenue would be less than 2,500 crores per decade. So this would be a big loss to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.
He made it clear that the BRS government did not have any right to entrust the projects to private companies at a ‘throw away price’. He wanted to know while the BRS has been criticizing the BJP government at the Centre for selling public sector companies, how it would give away the right on ORR which was a cash cow to a private company for a song.
