Odyssey Science City, Anantapur, AP: proposed township

[Jai]

upendora,

The project envisages that displaced farmers will get jobs and free housing within the township

[sreedhar]

Now we have to really suspect about the so called Science City project, they were supposed to acquire 10,000 acres of lad by Dec 2007, it is funny to hear that they acquired only 3 acres.

[bobbie501]

Originally Posted by sreedhar

Now we have to really suspect about the so called Science City project, they were supposed to acquire 10,000 acres of lad by Dec 2007, it is funny to hear that they acquired only 3 acres.

where did you get the information from????

[sb_suresh]

Let us all hope that this project will start soon and the people of this region beneit from this mega project. I think the AP Govt and the promoters should be more active in the whole process. Do not understand why they are so casual about it.

[kamalakar28]

Latest update by Dec 23, 2007

Registration for Odyssey project On

Land acquisition resumes in Kadiri



Staff Reporter



Registration for Odyssey project on





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Three farmers sell 6.65 acres at Rs. 1.5 lakh an acre

Value of land put at Rs. 50,000 per acre in documents


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ANANTAPUR: Registration of lands for the Odyssey Science City project was resumed in Kadiri on Saturday after a gap of about 15 days with three farmers from Karimireddypalli in Amadaguru mandal selling their 6.65 acres land to the project and getting cheques at the rate of Rs. 1.5 lakh an acre.

The officials did not issue registration documents to the project officials citing that the department would suffer heavy loss of revenue with undervaluation of land in documents. With 9.5 per cent stamp duty and service charges, the project had paid just Rs. 2,400 per acre to the department. The department was supposed to get Rs. 14,000 per acre if the amount paid to the farmers was mentioned in the documents.

Registration


After securing clarification from the Commissioner of Registrations earlier this week, it was decided to collect Rs. 4,800 per acre by showing the price of land at Rs. 50,000 per acre in the documents. Accordingly, the project officials paid the differential amount for the 3.16 acre registered on December 7 and secured the registration papers. Raghavender Reddy, Laxminarayanamma and Nagarjuna Reddy disposed their 6.65 acres to the project on Saturday and received cheques for appropriate amount at Rs. 1.5 lakh per acre and the lands were registered by collecting Rs. 4,800 fee per acre. The value of land was mentioned as Rs. 50,000 per acre in the documents.

[bobbie501]

Hello Mr.Kamalakar I Think You Are New To This Forum Welcome.Before Posting News Please Provide Link So That It Would Be More Usefull & Valid To Understand.

[kamalakar28]

http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/23/stor...2354340500.htm

Here is the link

[bobbie501]

APIIC to acquire land for Science City

HYDERABAD: A major problem confronted by promoters of the Odyssey Science City proposed in Anantapur district was solved here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy entrusting land acquisition to the APIIC.

The Chief Minister handed over the job to the APIIC when the Odyssey Science City (India) Limited officials, led by Christopher John Baker, its senior vice-president, explained to him the various difficulties faced by them in acquiring land. Dr. Reddy asked the company to remit the cost of the land to APIIC at the rate of Rs. 1.5 lakh per acre for dry land and Rs. 2 lakh per acre for wet land. The company officials said they would do so in 10 days.

Problem Solved There Will Be No More Hurdles in Land Aquisitions.

[Jai]

Land identified for Science City

Staff Reporter
APIIC likely to notify the land for acquisition

Revenue Department identifies 13,799 acres
The project requires about 65,000 acres of land

ANANTAPUR: The revenue department has identified 13,799 acres of land in five revenue villages of Amadaguru mandal in the district to facilitate its acquisition by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) for the purpose of Odyssey Science City project.

The APIIC is likely notify the land for acquisition soon.

Management of the Science City project could acquire only 9.81 acres of land in a couple of village in December 2007 at Rs. 1.5 lakhs per acre for dry land and at Rs. 2 lakhs per acre for land with irrigation facility.

Unable to acquire land further the project management had requested the State Government to acquire the land on its behalf and accordingly deposited some amount with the APIIC.

The project requires about 65,000 acres land and it was decided to acquire the required land in Amadaguru and Obuladevara Cheruvu mandals in the district.

The project management has initially decided to acquire about 25,000 acres for launching the project.

Later, it was decided to acquire about 10,000 acres in the first phase.

The exercise to identify about 15,000 acres land was taken up by about 30 officials of the revenue department forming themselves into seven teams.

The teams visited Tummala, Lokojupalli, Pulakuntapalli, Dademvandlapalli and Karimireddypalli revenue villages for about a week in the last week of February and first week of March and identified about 13,799 acres of land.

Of the land identified for acquisition by the APIIC 2,105 acres was government land, 5,016 acres was assigned land and 6,678 acres was patta land belonging to 2,500 farmers.

According to Amadaguru Tehsildar G. Ramamurthy they would send the report to the government for further action.

[harsh1802]

Good to see that....the project is still very much on the cards!

[Babji]

DC:

12,000 acres for Science City
Kadiri (Anantapur), March 15: The district collector, Mr N. Sridhar, said 12,000 acres would be acquired by the end of June this year for establishment of the Science City in Amadagur and Obuladevaracheruvu mandals.

Speaking to newsmen here on Saturday, he said that normally Special Economic Zone (SEZ) would be established in 2,500 acres land and added that Science City would be established 12,000 acres. He said 6,000 would be acquired by the end of March and another 6,000 acres would be acquired by the end of June. The collector said a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh would be paid for dry lands and Rs 2 lakh for wet lands. Mr Sridhar said the Ananta Aanimutyalu programme launched to help the poor students evoked good response in the district.

He said so far donations amounting to Rs 1 crore were received and donations worth another Rs 2 crore are expected. The collector said under the programme 3,000 students, who showed merit in Class X, would be provided financial aid to pursue further studies. Mr Sridhar said 50 per cent aid would be provided to students belonging to SCs, STs and physically challenged. He said a society would be formed in the district-level to ensure that the programme would continue even when a new collector is appointed in the district.

Mr Sridhar said voluntary agencies like RDT and Aswametha were also extending their cooperation to the programme. He said a website would also be launched on the Ananta Aanimutyalu. Mr Sridhar said the district Budget would be around Rs 350 crore this year. He said the district stood second in the second phase of Indiramma scheme and in third place in family planning programme in the state. The collector said the 3K Run organised against corruption had evoked good response.

Answering a query, Mr Sridhar said officials of the Indira Kranthi Patham and other departments should compulsorily give information sought by citizens under the Right to Information Act.

[Satvahan86]

EDIT

[Satvahan86]

Odyssey in court wrangles.

INDIAN lawyers are seeking to derail a $60 billion new "science city" in India planned by a Queensland company and its two Singaporean partners.

The court challenge comes as the developer consortium -- Brisbane-based Springfield Land Corp, with Jurong International and SembCorp from Singapore -- prepares to hand over $54 million to the Andhra Pradesh Government for the 5260ha Odyssey City site.

The challenge to Andhra Pradesh's compulsory land acquisition for the ambitious development is due to be heard in a Bangalore court on Tuesday.

Since January, the state has been resuming land for the planned hi-tech metropolis of 3million people that will be built over two decades.

The development is modelled on Springfield, the satellite city developed from scratch in the past 15 years in Brisbane's southwest.

SLC managing director Bob Sharpless said yesterday he was confident, on legal advice, that the court action would come to an end next week.

The Government's Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure Investment Corp was expected to resume its acquisition program and meet the planned May 31 deadline for settlement of the land sale to the Odyssey City partners.

Master planning could then begin, and civil works and infrastructure construction was likely to begin within 12 months, Mr Sharpless said.

Certainty of title and clear boundary definitions were necessary before serious master planning could begin.

"It's not as easy to get reliable survey and mapping information over there," he said. "We've had to apply to the Indian military to get access to some of their information."

Jurong is fully owned by the Singapore Government, while SembCorp is listed on the Singapore stock exchange.

Mr Sharpless said earlier reports that Macquarie Bank was an Odyssey City partner were incorrect, but the bank had expressed interest in providing funding for the project.

When Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was in India last week, Jurong's chief executive briefed her on the Odyssey City project.

Meanwhile, a group of high-ranking officials from Andhra Pradesh -- planning an overhaul of the state's land register -- visited Brisbane and other parts of Australia and New Zealand this month to study land title systems.

Mr Sharpless said that on the Springfield model, the Odyssey City consortium would act as master developer and other companies would be brought in to develop smaller components of the scheme.

Odyssey City aimed to provide homes, schools, universities, hospitals and commercial premises for a science and technology-oriented community. The type of businesses attracted to such a development were highly dependent on reliable communications, electricity, water, roads and transport, Mr Sharpless said.

The site is about 140km from Bangalore, 260km from Chennai and 370km from Hyderabad.

It did not have reliable road or transport connections, and the city needed to be built from the ground up, Mr Sharpless said.

About 25,000 people were living on the land, all of whom needed to be resettled.

"The land there is very poor in terms of its ability to be cultivated -- it is very, very arid and it really doesn't have a lot of use," he said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...006786,00.html

[kronik]

but of course - like any big project in the country, it has to go through the due process of public protests, courts cases and review committees.

[Jai]

Check this out! It was posted in my thread on the topic at skyscraperpage by pmoneyunit614:

Originally Posted by pmoneyunit614

LOOK.

The original image is at the chief minister of AP's website, with the caption:
"Chief Minister Dr.Y.S.Raja Sekhara Reddy Addressing After MOU with Odyssey Science City at Hyd on 25-01-07"

[harsh1802]

Nice find....the skyscrapers behind are crazy.

Man...that would be awesome if they can materialize the project!

[Jai]

The designs are kind of odd, but these are just prerenderings/guesses and not a final plan. If you look at the original 'renderings' they had for Lanco Hills, GIFT City and even the Nanocity proposal, you can see how they just made up random buildings that shows the intent of the project.

What it does tell us is that they're pretty damn serious about creating a large number of skyscrapers and a CBD.

[Jai]

Looks like the Science City has spurred FDI in the district... it seems an "Education City" is going to complement the Science City Also, the article confirms that 2,500 acres has been acquired so far for Science City


Ras al-Khaimah plans Educational City in Anantapur

Proposed city will be spread over 10,000 acres

Phalguna Jandhyala

Hyderabad, May 22 Ras al-Khaimah proposes to set up an Educational City in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The venture is likely to come up in the same area that was earlier earmarked for a science city which was supposed to have been built by a multi-national consortium comprising among others, Jurong International Group of Singapore.

Official sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told Business Line that officials from the Emirate met representatives in the Industries Department and a detailed project report is likely to be submitted in about a week.

“As per the initial plan, the proposed educational city will be spread over 10,000 acres in Anantapur. Apart from having educational and research centres, it will also house an IT and biotech park, an amusement park, hospitals among other facilities,” the source said.

In January 2007, the consortium signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Government for the Science City.

The investment projected then was $25 billion over 10 years.

The consortium also included Springfield Land Corp and Macquarie Bank (both from Australia), and Semb Corp Industries (Singapore). The science city was supposed to have facilities for hi-tech manufacturing, IT, biotech, bio-pharma and artificial intelligence industries.

“The company has already acquired about 1,000 acres in the area and the Government owns around 2,300 acres.

Also Jurong International has the consent from farmers for about 2,500 acres and we will now look at how to transfer this land also,” the source said.

Anrak of Ras al-Khaimah in September last year had applied for around 2,000 acres for setting up an aluminium plant entailing an investment of Rs 9,500 crore.

The proposed plant was supposed to have come up in Narsipatnam mandal of Visakhapatnam district.

The company has signed a pact with Jindal South West Steel Ltd which is setting up a similar project in the same district.

[harsh1802]

Originally Posted by Jai

The designs are kind of odd, but these are just prerenderings/guesses and not a final plan. If you look at the original 'renderings' they had for Lanco Hills, GIFT City and even the Nanocity proposal, you can see how they just made up random buildings that shows the intent of the project.

What it does tell us is that they're pretty damn serious about creating a large number of skyscrapers and a CBD.

Yeah i agree. I was being kinda being generic in my response. I think there are strong indications that this is a serious project and will materialize in some form.

[mvenkat]

The APIIC has done remarkable job by identifying over 13799 acres for the first phase 10000 acres for ultra modern city by the consortium. It should speed up the land acquisition work. No doubt the science city is backed up by the AP Govt. I would like to see if the project and /or MOU is implemented as planned.