Road-widening: SCR seeks time

HYDERABAD: The South Central Railway (SCR) has sought a week more time to respond to the agreement thrashed out with the GHMC for giving up land for road-widening on the Sangeet junction-Tarnaka route.

It made the request before the High Court stating that the Railway Board was yet to ratify the decision taken as a briefing to the Minister for Railways was pending, official sources said. Precisely 10 days ago, both parties worked out a formula to solve the impasse between them as suggested by the Chief Justice.
Less compensation

The SCR contented that the compensation offered by the GHMC was too less and did not conform to the prevailing market rate, while the latter argued that compensation was based on the rate fixed by the Collector.With High Court’s initiative, the GHMC has offered to apologise to the SCR for demolishing compound walls of its properties and also withdraw the land acquisition notice served for taking over 55,000 sq.yards for widening the road to 150 ft as it formed part of the inner ring road offering connectivity to the international airport at Shamshabad.

The GHMC is ready with a cheque for Rs. 45 crore pertaining to structural compensation and land cost calculated at Rs. 7,000 per sq.yard as decided by the Collector as preliminary payment. It also came armed with the withdrawal letter for the land acquisition notice issued earlier, but now the final settlement would have to wait for some more time.

The High Court said a committee headed by a retired judge assisted by a mechanical and a civil engineer would be constituted, once both parties signed the peace treaty, to decide on the final compensation for the land.

In the meantime, the GHMC is likely to be allowed to lay the road and bring it to public usage.