Drive to Rajiv Gandhi international airport may be costly
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Hyderabad: Travelling to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport will be a costly affair soon if the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has its way.
After losing 36 major revenue-making gram panchayats, and along with them nearly Rs 200 crore revenue per annum, the cash-starved HMDA is proposing to collect user charges from motorists using the P.V. Narasimha Rao Expressway to offset the loss.
Constructed at a cost of over Rs 600 crore, the 11.5 km-long PVNR elevated expressway is presently being used free of cost by motorists, mainly passengers going to and fro the international airport at Shamshabad.
HMDA to submit proposal to levy charges shortly
Hyderabad: The expressway was thrown open to vehicular traffic in November 2009 and on an average 3,000 vehicles ply on it everyday.
The HMDA is yet to prepare the modalities of toll collection on the PVNR Expressway. It needs the state government’s permission to levy user charges on PVNR Expressway and would be submitting its proposal shortly, explaining its precarious financial position.
“The government has stripped the HMDA of 36 major revenue-giving gram panchayats, but has not allotted a single paisa worth of a special grant in return.
It is struggling to pay monthly interest on Rs 1,100 crore loans obtained for various projects, like the PVNR Expressway and the ORR. Even the income tax department slapped a notice, asking the HMDA to cough up Rs 650 crore income tax on over Rs 2,500 crore that it raised through land auctions in the past,” a senior official in the HMDA said.
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