HUDA Targets Dec2007 for Commencement 

The Centre approved the Rs 2,700-crore loan for the final phase of the Outer Ring Road project. With this loan, to be given by the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, the entire funding for the prestigious project was tied up. While the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority is raising finances on its own for the first phase which is already grounded, the authority opted for the annuity model for the second phase.

“The loan for third phase is available at about three to four per cent interest and has 30 year time frame for repayment. The State has a 10-year moratorium after which the loan will be repaid in 20 years. Because of the approval of the loan tie up, the third phase can now be grounded in December 2007 itself,” an elated ORR project director Piyush Kumar told this correspondent. The committee on expenditure at Department of Economic Affairs cleared the ORR loan along with the Rs 5000 crore high voltage distribution system and Rs 6000 crore Krishnapatnam thermal power station. The German funding agency KSW will be extending a loan of Rs 3200 crore for the Krishnapatnam thermal plant.

The committee, however, kept on hold another ambitious project of the State government on improving water supply in Hyderabad metropolitan area. Official sources said the committee wanted the State to complete the procedure of getting a nod from the Union cabinet for this project. The ORR project officials divided the eight lane express highway into three phases.

First phase includes the road from Gachibowli to international airport at Shamshabad, second phase includes Gachibowli-Pattancheru and International airport-Vijayawada highway, and the remaining part is in the third phase. The officials were worried about the funding for third phase which is not as lucrative as the first two phases.