Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) would be formed to probe alleged irregularities in the contract awarded to a private company to collect tolls on the Hyderabad Outer Ring Road (ORR).
After coming to power last December, the state Congress government has raised allegations about the contract to collect tolls along the 158-km road, which is operated by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and comes under the Ministry of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD), which was headed by K T Rama Rao in the previous BRS government.
Revanth Reddy’s announcement of the SIT in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday comes on the same day that Rama Rao, known as KTR, was booked by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in a separate case related to alleged irregularities in payments made to bring the Formula E car racing event to Hyderabad during the BRS government’s tenure.
Ordering the latest probe, CM Reddy said the toll collection contract was valued at Rs 7,380 crore while the estimated revenue was Rs 18,000 crore over a 30-year period. “This gap between the contract value and projected revenues reeks of corruption and fiscal mismanagement. There is proof that IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited donated to BRS party,” the CM alleged.
Earlier on Thursday, the ACB filed a case into alleged irregularities related to the payment of Rs 45 crore to hold the Formula E race in Hyderabad in 2023, when KTR was MAUD minister.
KTR was named the primary accused in the case, former MAUD principal secretary Arvind Kumar was named the second accused and former Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) chief engineer BLN Reddy was the third accused.
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