KCR’s vision to turn Hyderabad into a logistic hub under threat from officials

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekar Rao’s vision to turn Hyderabad into India’s logistics hub, catering and servicing in a post-GST regime to a swathe across central and southern India, is under threat from a section of bureaucracy. Over three months ago, a senior official of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Administra-tion, which dispenses land outside the GHMC area for new industries, issued an internal memo to the industries department, seeking to declassify warehousing from the latter’s ambit, arguing “storage” is ineligible for permissions through the TS-iPASS. This would force new investments in warehousing sector, crucial to the overall logistics plan, to seek permission in an older fashion, by applying to each department physically. Secret of success in attracting investments, creating jobs “One of the biggest reasons for TS’s investor-friendly environment was TS-iPASS, which ensured time limits were set up for each approval, varying from one day to a maximum of 30 days, and above all,” said an investment advisory professional from Mumbai. From land administration clearances, irrigation, change of land use, master plan zone change, factory license, clearances from pollution control board, besides other commercial permits were all given within four weeks.” “The attraction of investing in TS would reduce without TS-iPASS.