Hyderabad has in the past decade become of India's shining examples of supportive governments and liberal policies. These have transformed a low profile city into one of the leading ones for businesses from around the world to invest in. The city infrastructure has progressed at a faster pace than any other Indian city and the city has expanded and transformed itself into a bustling business centre and preferred location for information technology, software, business process outsourcing and bio-technology. Volvo created a surprise by deciding to set up its manufacturing facility in Hyderabad. Real estate in Hyderabad presents one of the strongest growth opportunities in the country.

The last few months have indeed provided an impetus to a flourishing real estate activity in the city and suburbs. Some of the much publicized projects that promise to change the way the city appears have began taking a final shape and this pushed the property prices a notch higher. No doubt Hyderabad figures prominently when experts sit to compile a list of the most favored destinations for property related investments.
Real estate boom near Outer Ring Road Officials caution prospective buyers
No sooner had the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project announced than came into circulation brochures brought out by real estate developers.

The real estate cavalcade rolls on. It began with information technology and kept gathering momentum with every new announcement. In came Biotechnology Park, Knowledge Park, Hardware Park, Apparel Park, sporting stadium and promise for a swank new Airport and wide ring roads. And before the last of the boosters could fizzle out, came the announcement on Hyderabad being chosen as host for the multi-crore Fab City.

As every venture is supposedly located close to the ORR, the temptation to fall for the hype is understandably high. But, the hitch is HUDA officials themselves do not know the exact alignment of the ORR, except for the first phase.

For that matter, even the alignment for the first phase of the 22-km Shamshabad-Gachibowli road is not complete because of the shift in its alignment to avoid habitations and buildings that had come up in Miyapur area. "Some bottlenecks have to be resolved regarding land acquisition near the international airport Area because of the slight change in the alignment. It will be finalised in a couple of days. But for that, land acquisition has been completed for the first phase and work will be grounded by July," sources said.

Second phase

Work on the second phase of the ORR, comprising 137 km, is still in the preliminary stages, says the Project Director of ORR, Piyush Kumar. A detailed survey has to be carried out, a revenue model worked out, and consultancy partner decided based on the `Expression of Interest,' which would be called shortly.

The purpose of the ORR is to facilitate traffic decongestion, provide feeder channel and inner connectivity, create satellite townships, and for this the opinions of stakeholders will be taken into consideration. Until then the alignment of the second phase of the ORR will not be known.

Though real estate developers may speculate about the alignment, it would be sensible to wait for a couple of months when everything will become public so that one can make an informed choice, he opines. Importantly, the area beyond 159 km ORR falls under the jurisdiction of notified area but some zones will be earmarked for all kinds of activities.

The Expression of Interest for the second phase will be invited soon once the Central Government gave its clearance and hopefully by the middle of next month consultancy partners for the second phase will be decided, it is said.