No steel, sand supply puts 2BHK project in trouble
TS yet to take a decision on steel prices to continue work
The Telangana state government’s flagship double-bedroom housing project (2BHK project) for urban poor in the city has run into troubled waters. With price hike of steel, the manufacturers have stopped steel supply since six weeks.
Adding to the woes, Rajanna Sircilla district collector has not been allowing sand supply to the city due to alleged irregularities by lorry drivers and contractors. The city has been receiving sand from a quarry in Rajanna Sircilla district.
Steel prices rose to around `30,000 per tonne in 2015 when the agreement for the 2BHK (two bedroom, hall and kitchen) housing project was inked. The price rose to `47,000 per tonne in 2017 and is expected to reach `50,000 per tonne in a short period. The builders said that this will result in an additional burden of `500 crore to construct 1 lakh double bedroom houses. According to highly placed sources, the state government is yet to take a decision on the steel price hike. A series of meetings has been held in this regard.
On querying, a senior of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) official said, on conditions of anonymity, that the double bedroom houses project will come to a grinding halt if this is the situation. He said that neither the builders were ready to carry on the work with the hiked steel prices nor the government is ready for a compromise.
“Currently, the project has been running at a brisk pace but once it gets halted it would be very difficult to pick up the same pace and the project will not be completed as per the deadlines fixed by the government,” an official said.
On the other side, the city corporation requires 25 lakh cubic metres of sand in order to construct one lakh double bedroom houses. In December, Rajanna Sircilla district collectorate authorities had seized as many as five lorries for illegally transporting sand to private apartments in Hyderabad. Besides this, the executive engineers of double bedroom housing projects are allegedly hand in glove with the private contractors and are demanding bulk permits to transport sand from the quarry. The Corporation has been spending `1,500 per cubic metre to transport sand to the city.
Rajanna Sircilla district collector Devarakonda Krishna Bhaskar said that the private contractors who were supposed to transport sand for the double bedroom houses project had been selling the sand to some private apartments.
He said that when caught red handed, the contractors were behaving as if it was their right to transport sand illegally. The collector said that sand supply for the 2BHK housing project in the city has been stopped for the past six weeks. He said that after series of consultations with the state government and the GHMC authorities, the district collectorate will not allow any bulk permits to transport sand from the Sircilla quarry.
He said that the GHMC authorities were asked to issue utilisation certificate to transport sand from the district.
“Besides this, the district authorities have asked all private JCBs to be vacated from the quarry. Now, the government hired vehicles will weigh and load the required sand into the lorries.
In order to check overloading in vehicles, a weighing machine will be placed at a random transit points where the details will be uploaded online in the Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (TSMDC) website. The collector said that both the GHMC and the private agency will be held responsible for any irregularities.