Hyderabad: Seeking information from the Telangana government regarding the transfer of Outer Ring Road (ORR) ownership, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy filed a writ petition in the Telangana High Court against HMDA on Wednesday, July 26.
The transfer of ownership was awarded to INB Infrastructure Developers Limited for Rs 7380 crore, spanning a lengthy period of 30 years.
The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief filed an application under RTI with the Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) on May 1 for details about the ORR TOT (Toll Operate Transfer) agreement between the government and IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited.
“We have not received any response to the RTI query from the principal secretary to the state government Arvind Kumar yet,” said Revanth.
He also stated in his plea that police stalled him from personally meeting the principal secretary of HMDA at the Secretariat to file the application on that day.
According to Revanth, he filed another application on June 14 after HGCL provided partial details on the matter.
However before the RTI response arrived, HMDA filed a civil suit in City Civil Court securing a gag order thus preventing Revanth to make further statements on the matter.
Revanth further contended that he had to move high court as there was no reply to his second query from the government.
What is ORR-TOT deal?
Telangana Government in April, announced that it has awarded Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR), Hyderabad on a Toll, Operate and Transfer (TOT) basis for 30 years to IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd. for Rs 7,380 crore (USD 0.9 billion) in one of the largest asset monetization deals executed in the country’s road sector.
The 30-year TOT deal is projected to generate considerable money for the state and assist regional infrastructure development.
Arvind Kumar then said that TOT would also assist the state government in leveraging private-sector investment for new infrastructure development.
However, opposition parties alleged a scam in ORR’s TOT deal and demand a rollback.
They questioned why the state government which was supposed to give toll collection right only for two to four years, in this instant case had given it for 30 years.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Masrath Fatima | 
