Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has issued a legal notice to Malkajgiri MP and TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy, demanding an unconditional public apology within 48 hours for his reported “false and defamatory statements on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) lease” and asking him to refrain from making similar baseless and disparaging remarks in the future.
The HMDA stated in the notice that the effort to monetise the ORR through the Toll-Operate-Transfer model and generate revenues along the lines of the NHAI was done in a fair, lawful, and transparent manner, and IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited emerged as the successful bidder, accusing Revanth Reddy of making ‘false’ and ‘sweeping’ allegations through press meets.
The HMDA further said that neither the provisions of the RFP nor the Tender/Bid document include any obligation that the selected bidder, IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, make any advance payments prior to the contract’s conclusion.
“It is amply clear that allegations with respect to non-payment of the fee are pre-mature and in fact pre-meditated only to malign our clients with an intention to raise the false alarm within the general public,” the legal notice said.
The HMDA received no requests for extensions of time from the concessionaire, and no such extensions were granted, according to the HMDA notification, which called Revanth Reddy’s comments “patently false and clearly reek of malice.”
“The present tender is floated on a TOT basis for operation and maintenance of the ORR for a particular period of time and at no point does the tender seeks to transfer the ownership of any of the assets pertaining to the ORR,” the statement added.
The legal notice stated that Revanth Reddy’s failure to offer an unconditional apology in public within 48 hours of receiving the notice, as well as cease and desist from actions to ‘defame the HMDA with false remarks and statements’, would result in appropriate legal actions under both civil and criminal laws.
