HYDERABAD: In a major demolition drive, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority demolished 22 villas and a club house in a gated community at Bowrampet, near Dundigal, in Medchal on Monday.
Of the 197 villas in the area, 22 did not apply either for layout regularisation or building regularisation. For the remaining 175 villas, people have applied under LRS and BRS and are spared from demolition. Each villa has a ground floor and first floor.
HMDA director (Planning-1) Purushotham Reddy told Express that unauthorised villas had come up in survey numbers of 692, 693, 971 to 279 at Bowrampet on the outskirts of the city.
The court directed the builder and villa owners to pay ` 1 lakh penalty on one villa each for the unauthorised constructions since the applicants did not pay the fees but went to court which granted them interim relief.
HMDA filed a counter with required documents to support its case and the court, after hearing the pleas, vacated the stay.
Meanwhile, the enforcement and town planning wings took up the demolitions as early as at 8.30 am on Monday.
The builder constructed the villas based on gram panchayat permission which is not valid and not tenable as gram panchayats are not competent to grant approval for such major gated community villas layout. HMDA is the only competent authority for granting approval for such projects, it said.