Nearly 740 acres of land is yet to be acquired for the Outer Ring Road (ORR), though the work on the second phase is already on. This is because of opposition from land owners. Even three years after the land acquisition began for the state government’s ambitious project, of the required 5,200 acres of land for phase II, so far about 4,460 acres have been acquired. The land includes agriculture land, plots and institutional land. The HMDA paid Rs 565 crore as compensation and allotted 5,69,000 sq yards of land to the land losers towards land for land compensation.

Following slump in real estate prices, the land losers, who were hitherto demanding land for land, are now reluctant to take land from the HMDA. The works of 62-km ORR phase-II A from Narsingi to Patancheru and Pedda Amberpet to Shamshabad began in December 2007. They were targeted to becompleted by May 2010. Phase II B works from Patancheru to Pedda Amberpet via Medchal, Shamirpet and Ghatkesar are expected to begin in January 2009. Of the total land required, nearly 2700 acres of land is required for phase II A. Though the works were started a year ago, the HMDA is still to acquire 500 acres of land for the Phase II A. While nearly 200 acres of land are in court cases, another 300 acres are to be acquired in areas like Koheda, Kongera and Srinagar where the farmers are not parting with their land for the ORR. Phase IIB requires 2,500 acres.

The government is yet to take over 240 acres in Shamirpet, Keesara and Korremla areas. Apart from this, the HMDA had acquired about 434 acres land for the ORR phase I from Gachibowli to Shamshabad which was opened to the public a week ago. “If the situation continues like this and the land is not acquired, it will be impossible to complete phase II on time,” an officer said. The farmers are not coming forward since of the total 5,200 acres nearly 3,900 acres are agriculture land. ORR proje