Many have pointed out how Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who is known to be a close follower of Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, has given a green signal for the sale of the same piece of land
Published Date – 7 March 2025, 05:34 PM
HYDERABAD: The 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli locality, which the Congress government is planning to sell, has an interesting history.
It is the same parcel of land which the then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, gave away to IMG Acadmics Bharata Pvt Ltd in addition to 450 acres of land at Mamidipally under Saroornagar mandal.
During the erstwhile rule of Chandrababu Naidu, a serious controversy erupted over reports that IMG Bharata was represented by Ahobila Rao alias Billy Rao, who happened to be a close aide of the then Chief Minister. This piece of 400 acres was offered at a paltry amount to IMG Academics Bharata Private Limited in 2003. The then Naidu government had signed an agreement with the company represented by Billy Rao.
The deal was to allot 400 acres under Serilingampally limits and 450 acres at Mamidipally under Saroornagar mandal limits as part of an agreement signed for developing sports facilities in Hyderabad.
Accordingly, the land at Serilingampally was sold in February 2004 at a throwaway price.
However, controversy erupted over the agreement. The Congress had alleged that the company was not involved in any sports-related activities and that it was registered just days ahead of signing the agreement.
After coming to power in May 2004, the Congress government had cancelled the agreement and took back the land. Crying foul, the company approached the court and the case went on for over two decades.
In March 2024, the High Court gave the verdict in favour of the government, handing back 850 acres to the government.
Now, a year after the verdict, the Revanth Reddy government is looking at the same parcel of land for selling to make some money. The same land was mortgaged to the ICICI Bank for raising a loan of Rs 10,000 crore.
However, recently, the TGIIC invited agencies on February 28 to serve as transaction adviser for the optimisation of the master plan and assist with the auction of land proposed to be developed at Kancha Gachibowli.
Many have pointed out how Revanth Reddy, who is known to be a close follower of Naidu has given a green signal for the sale of the same piece of land.
Meanwhile, sensing the Congress government’s plans, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has raised objections over the land sale. Both the BRS and Congress had entered into arguments over the land sale in the Assembly in December last year as well.
Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy had defended the government’s actions by saying it was only a transfer of land from the Revenue department to the TGIIC. But the corporation’s request for a proposal late last month has exposed the actual plans of the government.
