Unitech townships faces legal hurdles in Andhra

Unitech, one of India’s largest real estate developer, is facing legal hurdles making an aggressive entry into the booming realty market Andhra Pradesh. It has proposed to develop two major townships in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.
Recently the company won a tender to develop a township in 1750 acres at Visakhapatnam. Former Minister and Telugu Desam leader Thammineni Seetharm filed a public interest litigation in the High Court seeking a direction to conduct probe on allotment of land to proposed Integrated Vizag Knowledge City at Kapula Uppada village in Visakhpatnam district and Integrated Airport Township in Hyderabad.
The petitioner submitted the court that the Andhra Pradesh IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation has proposed to develop the knowledge City and Airport Township at Vizag and Hyderabad.He told the court that the Knowledge City was proposed to construct 1750 acres and Airport Township in 350 acres at Nadergul village of Saroornagar mandal.
The petitioner alleged that the process adopted by the APIIC would hamper public interest. He also alleged that "in the guise of inviting bids by the APIIC and its Executive director were trying to knock away valuable public property through a 'real estate' transaction and cause financial loss to the exchequer.
Unitech also bagged a tender to develop a 350-acre township in Hyderabad. Pratap Karan, a retired government employee, and 15 others filed a writ petition in the court saying that they are the owners of the 373.22 acres of land in Nadergul village of Saroornagar mandal of Ranga Reddy district. The petitioners challeneged the notification of the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation calling tenders for allotting 373 acres of land to private parties for setting up a township.
The petitioner submitted to the court that the land belonged to late Raja Shivraj Dharmavat Bahadur. After his demise succession was granted to Dhiraj Karan, Dharm Karan, and Mahaboob Karan in 1917. The land is adjacent to the Hardware Park. Unitech, one of India’s largest real estate developers, reportedly entered into an agreement with the state government to develop an integrated airport township on the land.
The petitioner said an appeal was pending in the High Court over the title of the land. In spite, the government issued a notification, inviting bids to sell out the land. The petitioner alleged that the state is trying to dispossess them.