Can a government department be at the receiving end of other departments? Difficult to imagine. But this is precisely the case with the State Wakf Board.
The commercial complex being constructed by it adjacent to the Haj House in Nampally has run into rough weather thanks to the GHMC and the Hyderabad Metro Rail.
Even as the queries raised by the civic body have slowed down the project, the HMR has thrown a spanner in the works with its proposal to construct a railway station bang opposite the commercial complex.
An irate Wakf Board has shot down the proposal saying it would affect the aesthetics of the complex besides blocking the approach.
On Wednesday, HMR engineers took measurements near the Haj House and conveyed their decision to the Wakf Board officials.
“This is not acceptable to us. We will discuss the matter in the forthcoming Board meeting,” said its chairman, Syed Ghulam Ahmed Biyabani.
The Wakf Board gate already has a bus stop on one side and a proposed elevated metro rail station is on the other end.
For quite some time, the seven-storied commercial complex on the 3,800 sq.yard plot adjacent to the Haj House has been a victim of official apathy.
Though the previous plot owners had taken permission from GHMC for the construction of the complex, the Wakf Board was asked to obtain them afresh as the time line had lapsed.
The previous owners had obtained 22 different permissions and the Board wants the GHMC to revalidate them since the plot size and the height of building remains the same.
“By now the complex should have been completed if not for objections being raised,” officials say.
In fact, much before construction began in December 2011, the GHMC issued a notice directing construction of a retaining wall around the huge pit following complaints from neighbours. “But now we are told to stop construction since the necessary permissions have not been obtained,” said an official.
