Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd also known as APIIC has been embroiled in a controversy over land acquisition for the Boulder Hills project in Hyderabad, a joint venture with EMAAR-MGF. News reports suggest that the APIIC agreed to dilute the public stake by undervaluing the land that it contributed. About 500 acres of land was acquired by APIIC in 2002-2003 for setting up a golf course and residential properties. Of the 535 acres of land in Manikonda near the Indian School of Business, APIIC sold 285 acres at 27 lakhs per acre as against the prevailing price of 1 crore per acre in 2003. The remaining 235 acres (and an additional 15 acres of unusable land) were allotted as a 66 year lease with a 2% share of the Golf course revenues. EMAAR sold this project to EMAAR-MGF and diluted the value of APIIC's stake from 26% to 4%, by not considering the prevailing market rate for the land in 2009.
Multiple claimants to the land have emerged, including the WAKF board and the previous farmer owners of this land. The customers who have paid for properties in the developed project are in jeopardy due to the unclear land title. On the back of the controversial Boulder Hills deal with EMAAR-MGF, several other APIIC projects, including the Raheja Mindspace IT park, that were approved in the period between 2003 and 2009 are being questioned. There are allegations of irregularities in land deals during the Chief Ministership of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
There are also allegations that government officials were allocated parcels of the property at deeply discounted prices compared to the prevailing market price. Officials who previously ran APIIC and seem to have conflicts of interest with the developers, have refuted many of these allegations and defended earlier land allotment decisions.
There have been several calls for a thorough investigation into APIIC deals either by the CBI or by the state investigative agency CID. Though there were initial reports of an external audit, the calls for a CBI enquiry were downplayed by the Andhra Pradesh Government, which has initiated an internal APIIC probe.
Multiple claimants to the land have emerged, including the WAKF board and the previous farmer owners of this land. The customers who have paid for properties in the developed project are in jeopardy due to the unclear land title. On the back of the controversial Boulder Hills deal with EMAAR-MGF, several other APIIC projects, including the Raheja Mindspace IT park, that were approved in the period between 2003 and 2009 are being questioned. There are allegations of irregularities in land deals during the Chief Ministership of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
There are also allegations that government officials were allocated parcels of the property at deeply discounted prices compared to the prevailing market price. Officials who previously ran APIIC and seem to have conflicts of interest with the developers, have refuted many of these allegations and defended earlier land allotment decisions.
There have been several calls for a thorough investigation into APIIC deals either by the CBI or by the state investigative agency CID. Though there were initial reports of an external audit, the calls for a CBI enquiry were downplayed by the Andhra Pradesh Government, which has initiated an internal APIIC probe.
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