HYDERABAD: THE APIIC's deal with real estate major Unitech for development of 'Integrated Vizag Knowledge City' at Kapuluppada in Visakhapatnam is coming under the scanner.
The deal, struck in 2007, was more or less on the lines of that with EMAARMGF. Dubbed then as the largest deal in terms of area it was for 1,750 acres for which Unitech would pay Rs 3,328 crore over a period of 10 years.
As part of the 'Vizag Knowledge City' project, Unitech was mandated to build villas, highrise apartments, shopping centres, hotels, schools and hospitals, an entertainment park besides a golf course in an area of about 250 acres.
There was a public outcry against the deal because the land for which Unitech had signed the deal with APIIC has a huge hill (Survey No.314) and that sale of such hills is verboten under the provisions of the Visakhaptnam Master Plan. Besides, GO 913 issued by the municipal administration department in the early 1990s prohibited sale of water bodies and hills for commercial purpose.
"We have to look into the allegations that it was a shady deal. We will get round to it once the investigation into the APIIC pact with EMAARMGF is over,'' sources said.
APIIC has started preparing a comprehensive report on its deal with EMAARMGF for submission to chief minister K Rosaiah. A threemember committee that the APIIC has constituted with company secretary, general manager (law) and the project incharge has been given the brief to dig into how rules had been bent to favour EMAARMGF.
APIIC chairman S Sivarama Subrahmanyam met the chief minister at his camp office today but could not discuss the scam much because he was yet to get inputs on how the deal had been inked with EMAARMGF. The chief minister had sought from the APIIC chairman a detailed report so that he could take a decision on the kind of enquiry that had to be ordered. Today's meeting was a brief affair since the chief minister was reportedly indisposed.
Besides the constitution of a threemember committee, the APIIC is planning to hire the services of independent auditors of high repute to go through the deals and submit a report as early as possible.
When contacted, Sivarama Subrahmanyam said that within two weeks a comprehensive report on APIICEMAAR MGF would be submitted to the government. "It is for the government to decide on what kind of inquiry has to be ordered. It could be a CBI investigation or a judicial inquiry,'' he said.