HYDERABAD: Over a dozen multi-crore villas in the upscale Manikonda will soon be razed. Reason: They have come up on the buffer zone of the Neknampur Lake and been pronounced illegal by the revenue department. As per market estimates each villa, roughly 4,500 sq ft, is priced at Rs 4.5 crore (approx).
“There are 19 villas in the buffer zone under the project ‘GVN Lake View Villas.’ Of these, six are constructed, four are under construction and nine in the foundation stage. The villas are 5 BHK and none of them is occupied. We started razing them on Thursday and have demolished boundaries of nine villas. The rest will also be demolished soon,” said an assistant executive engineer from the Irrigation and Common Area Development (CAD) department of Manikonda zone. The action follows complaint by locals to the Rangareddy collector about the villas encroaching on the lake Full Tank Level and buffer zone .
Revenue department officials said over four acres for the project was bought about 10 years ago. The Manikonda municipality issued permission to build the villas. The municipal commissioner, who was in-charge at the time of issuing the permission, declined to talk to TOI.
“This is not the first time we are demolishing these villas. Around three years ago we demolished three under-construction villas at the same place. However, they were reconstructed recently. We will file a criminal complaint against them for going against department’s notice,” said a revenue department official.
Earlier this month, the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) had served show-cause notices to two other construction firms – Ananda Homes and Pooja Homes – for encroachment, pollution of the lake and unauthorised use of lake water for construction.
“These projects too must meet a similar fate given they were illegally built on the full tank level (FTL),” said S Vishal Keshav, a techie and resident of the area questioning why the Manikonda municipality overlooked these issues while giving building permission.
“Certainly, the municipality was aware that the land is within the lake bed. Therefore, issuing permission seems odd. They have maps which clearly indicate the FTL and buffer zone, which they evidently overlooked during the approval process,” he added.
Incidentally, the Manikonda municipality took to X on Sept 30, 2023, to that there were no encroachments on FTL.
“Today a joint survey was conducted at Neknampur lake by Manikonda municipality officials. No encroachments were noticed within FTL. There are some temporary sheds for labour camps in the buffer zone. A notice was issued to the builder to remove the same within 15 days. @cdmatelangana,” the post read.
Attempts to reach the builder of the affected project failed.
