HYDERABAD: Throwing a ‘Swiss Challenge’ to the State government over its decision to lease the Outer Ring Road (ORR) toll collection and maintenance to IRB Infra for 30 years for Rs 7,388 crore, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy on Thursday offered to secure a bank loan to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore if it cancels the earlier tender and agrees to keep the ORR under its control.
Addressing the media, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy said that he will seek an investigation by the State Vigilance and Enforcement, the Central Vigilance Commission, and the Department of Personnel and Training, and will also take MAUD Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar to court, to explain as to how the tender was done without a base minimum price, which he said, was illegal.
“Even the HMDA sells its plots by quoting the base minimum price during the auction. So, why is it that the same was not followed during the ORR tender,” he wanted to know. Alleging that the State government had “sold what could have been a huge revenue generating source” for 30 years to IRB infra, which he suspected was just a frontal company, with those close to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ready to put their investments in the joint venture.
He also said that Arvind Kumar and MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao were not coming out openly on various apparent irregularities in the way the tender was called, because they will be questioned by the investigative agencies when the matter reaches them. Claiming that Rs 700 crore per year revenue was being generated from the ORR and that its assets were worth Rs 1 lakh crore, he said that in 30 years, the government can collect revenues to the tune of Rs 21,000 to Rs 22,000.
‘Killing the golden goose’
“ORR is a goose that lays golden eggs. They are not collecting the golden eggs, but are killing and eating away the goose,” he remarked.“If you mortgage the income for 30 years, any bank will give you a loan of Rs 15,000 crores for 70 per cent of the income. I will work hard to get a loan within 48 hours. The ORR tenders should be cancelled immediately and fresh tenders under the Swiss Challenge System with the base price of Rs 7,388 crore should be invited,” he demanded.
He also said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) too had objected to the ORR tender, citing that the Hyderabad master plan was valid only till 2031, and had advised against giving the lease of ORR for not more than 15 to 20 years, which he said, was overlooked by the State government.
“The ORR Corridor was under the jurisdiction of Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited before the tender was called. In the meantime, ORR was transferred to HMDA. HMDA MD Santhosh was replaced by retired BLN Reddy. Isn’t it true that ORR has been brought under the ambit of HMDA just to give it away to IRB,” Revanth wanted to know.
“Arvind Kumar did not reply to any of the questions we have raised. We were not even given the information we requested through RTI queries. Won’t he answer even before the CBI and the ED,” he wondered.