Top official claims Hyderabad ORR tender process was transparent

Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar in the late hours on Wednesday, 3 April, said the tender for leasing the Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Hyderabad was made in a transparent manner.

Kumar was addressing a press conference called in the capital to refute Opposition allegations that the state was leasing the operation of the ORR to private firms at rates that would ensure them windfall profits.

The tenders were called as per the guidelines of National Highways Authority of India (NHIA) and the toll charges would not be increased without the consent of NHIA, he said.He added that the base price for the lease was also pre-decided, but it was not disclosed to anyone, including the NHIA.

Referring to allegations over the tender process, he said it was inappropriate on the part of a few politicians to level allegations against officials unnecessarily.This comes after Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy has found fault with the state government for leasing the ORR to a private company.

“Leasing the ORR for 30 years to a private company is nothing but a ₹1,000 crore scam,” he said.The ORR, with a length of over 158 km, is an eight-lane, access-controlled, circular closed-loop tolling highway that encircles Hyderabad.

The construction of ORR began in 2006 in phased manner and was completed in 2018 and, according to experts, is one of the most effective, well-designed and strategically-located ring roads anywhere in the country.Different stretches of the ORR, as and when they were completed, were opened to toll collection — with the first stretch of 79.45 km opening in 2012.The entire ORR stretch of 158 km was opened for toll collection from 2018.