Telangana: Govt seeks Centre’s help to probe ORR toll gate tender

Hyderabad: The State Government is likely to ask the Centre for a CBI probe into the alleged ORR (Outer Ring Road) toll gate scam.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had announced that an investigation with the CBI or equivalent agency will be ordered soon. The state government is also contemplating to seek the help of the Union Finance Ministry and relevant central agencies to find out whether there has been any “secret financial deal” between the contract agency IRB and the top BRS leaders in the previous government last year.

The government had raised serious doubts on the finalisation of the tenders at a low price which resulted in a huge revenue loss to the state government. The role of the HMDA officials and some top leaders of BRS in finalizing the tenders are also being suspected. It is alleged that the tenders were called without fixing the minimum rate. Some names of influential leaders and the organisations who were responsible in finalising the tender process has been put under scanner. Officials said that huge revenue loss was the major concern before the government. The total revenue generated from the ORR was Rs 600 crore per year before calling the toll tenders. The tender was finalised at a meagre Rs 7,800 crore to the IRB company as against the estimation of Rs 18,000 crore revenue generation in 30 years period. It is primarily estimated the government incurred a loss of Rs 15,000 crore due to the tender process adopted by the HMDA. “Financial implications in awarding the ORR management to a private agency are a big scam,” said sources.

Sources said that alleged financial transactions between the agency and some top officials and influential leaders will be probed deeply and it required the help of the Central agencies mainly the Union Finance Ministry which deals with financial issues of the companies.

It is said that the attention of the Centre has been drawn towards the ORR toll gate scam about a week back and the government had said that it suspects even FEMA violations, hawala transactions and benami investments in the agreement entered between the government

which needs to be probed thoroughly before handing over the issue to a Central probing agency for detailed investigation.