Skyrocketing land prices riding on speculation have brought all possible investments and land registrations to a grinding halt in the Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and Mangalagiri (VGTM) region, with the Andhra Pradesh government issuing an unofficial diktat to halt registrations to facilitate land acquisition, sources in the Registration department said.
The VGTM region is touted as the location for the new capital of the State.
Fearing further hike in prices, Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy said the government was taking special measures to protect its land in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. “We have come up with a 100-day action plan to arrest anomalies in the Registration department. The idea is to bring in uniformity in land prices of the Registration and Revenue departments,” he said. The mad rush has scared off potential investors and industrialists such as a delegation from a certain Delhi-based business house which took the return flight due to the illogical hike in prices.
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“The price quoted by owners as well as middlemen per acre doubled by the end of the day. When the party was prepared to pay the amount, brokers came up with a fresh proposal claiming a better offer from another party,” said a senior official of a bank which has been funding the company’s projects.