Boom in realty sector brings back smiles in AP capital region

Guntur, Nov 17: At a time when the Andhra Pradesh government was struggling to persuade farmers to part with their lands for the development of a new capital city in Guntur district, everyone is surprised at real estate boom in the capital region. It is alleged that thousands of crores of rupees are changing hands on a daily basis in the capital region. Desecrate inquiries with officials showed that lands worth over Rs 3,000 crore had already changed hands in the past 10 days in the proposed capital region that comprises Thulluru, Tadepalli and Mangalagiri mandals of the Guntur district. Realtors from akk iver Andhra pradesh and Telangana have been swarming the cities of Vijayawada and Guntur in the aftermath of bifurcation of the State. However, they faced disappointment at the initial stage as there was no real estate boom. The state government too dilly dallied initially. Later, however, it announced that the new capital city will be built in the vicinity of Vijayawada. It then shifted the capital to Guntur district. When AP Ministers and officials started visiting villages to convince the farmers to part with their land under the land pooling scheme for the development of a capital city, land value in the region suddenly went sky-high. Lands in the region are now out of reach of the common people. The value of land, whether it is barren or fertile, is being quoted as high as Rs 10 crore an acre. The value of fertile land in the villages, which now comes under the proposed capital region, was just Rs 10 lakh an acre just a few days back. Thanks to the boom in real estate, there is a sudden and steady flow of revenue into the coffers of the Registration department. Sources said Mangalagiri Sub-registrar office has earned a revenue of Rs 15 crore, four times higher than the target fixed by the government, in just 10 days. The revenue earned through registration in Guntur during November till date is Rs 60 crore.