ORR Lease Contract As Per Guidelines Of Union Government: BRS

Refuting the allegations of large scale corruption in the award of the Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR) lease to a firm for 30 years, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) said that the whole bidding process was executed in a transparent manner and that the Letter of Award (LOA) of Toll, Operate and Transfer (TOT) was issued as per the guidelines of the union government.

Speaking at a press conference, BRS MLAs Devireddy Sudhir Reddy and K P Vivekananda said that a total of 11 firms had expressed an interest in the participation of bidding of which four were shortlisted for the final bidding. The lease contract was awarded to the highest bidder, he said.

Condemning the allegations of Union Minister G Kishan Reddy that the leasing was a conspiracy to kill the golden ORR goose to serve the selfish interests of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his family, MLA Sudhir Reddy said that the tendering process was done as per the guidelines of the union government, and that there was no truth in the allegations.

The State government was also ready for a CBI investigation into the award of the contract as demanded by Kishan Reddy, Sudhir Reddy said.

"If there indeed are any irregularities, then the union government should accept the challenge of the State government and conduct the investigation," Sudhir Reddy said.

MLA Vivekananda said that both TPCC president Revanth Reddy and BJP State unit president Bandi Sanjay were levelling baseless remarks against the State government over the award of the ORR lease contract, and were trying to malign the image of minister K T Rama Rao.