IT corridor attracted major chunk of residential projects in 2017

HYDERABAD: Areas surrounding Hyderabad where IT companies are located still hold the charm for real estate developers. In 2017, the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) of Telangana, approved about 71 big residential projects for Environmental Clearance. Construction projects that have a built up area between 20,000 square meters (sq m) and 1,50,000 sq m, are required to obtain EC from the SEIAA, as per law. 

A major chunk of the 71 residential projects approved by SEIAA, about 23 of them, are located in Serilingampally mandal, home to areas like Gachibowli, Kondapur, Madhapur, Nanakramguda, Raidurg, Chanda Nagar and Kothaguda that house IT companies or are located in close proximity to them. 
Apart from these 23 projects, 11 construction projects that got the approval from SEIAA for EC, that include eight IT parks, three commercial spaces and one ‘health city’, which are also located in Serilingampally. 

Himayatsagar and Osmansagar are also hotspots of residential projs
Another major chunk of the residential projects approved by the SEIAA, about 32 of them, are located in the 10 kilometer radius on the downstream of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar reservoirs. Of these, around 11 projects are located in Rajendranagar, 8 in Gandipet and 4 in Shankarpally mandals, all of which have quick accessibility to Gachibowli and other IT areas through the Outer Ring Road. 

One big project is located in Shaikpet mandal which is also located very close to the IT areas. 
Eight of the 32 projects in the 10 km radius from Himayatsagar and Osmansagar fall in Quthbullapur mandal, which is located close to the industrial areas of Balanagar and Patancheru. All the 32 projects that fall in 10 km radius of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar have been given clearance by SEIAA exclusively mentioning that these projects do not fall in the list of 84 villages in 10 km radius of the catchment area of two water bodies, where pollution-generating big residential projects are banned by the controversial Government Order passed by the then Andhra Pradesh government. 

It may be mentioned here that there have been reports that Telangana government is interested in repealing the GO 111 and one allegation is that the motive behind this is to promote real estate development in the 10km radius. The high interest shown in 2017 by real estate developers in constructing residential projects in the 10 km radius area outside of the banned 84 villages, raises some eyebrows.