Is Hyderabad ready to witness a Twin Towers-like demolition?
The demolition of the Twin Towers in Delhi’s Noida last week raised fresh doubts in the minds of people living in both the Telugu States – Do we have twin towers like this, which were awaiting get demolished?
After building 40 floors in Noida near Delhi and after a 10-year struggle by the buyers, the Twin Towers have been finally turned into rubble. But the situation of the construction sector in Telangana is completely different from this. Over last three years, developers have sold flats in pre-launch offers even before building such skyscrapers in Hyderabad. Some projects did not take off even after three-four years. Some others are in approval stage, while other construction companies have already collected money from buyers, but are still dilly-dallying on whether to start the construction or not. Having said that, people who purchased flats in the pre-launch projects will surely face difficulties in the coming days.
Telangana has some of the strict building regulations in the country. Before starting construction of apartments, the builders must mortgage 10 percent of the construction site to the local municipal corporation while obtaining permission. Only after ascertaining that the said apartment has been built as per the rules, the local bodies will release the mortgaged flats. Therefore, Telangana has limited apartments which are built against norms. But the problem arises when a couple of people obtain permission for two different plots separately and take up construction of an apartment jointly. In such cases, the local bodies will turn a blind eye for reasons better to all. Even to this day, there are builders who bribe the authorities and get the occupancy certificate in such cases.
Some developers with political clout are getting permissions even though they don’t have ownership rights over the land. Some landlords are justly fighting against such developers. Only when the respective construction companies lose these cases in the Supreme Court, we might witness a Twin-Towers like demolition. So, it is better if the developers resolve the problems in an amicable manner instead of going ahead like Super Tech company. Otherwise, there is a risk of tarnishing Hyderabad’s brand image unnecessarily.