Suburbs are land of milk and money

T Sunil Reddy / TNN / Dec 19, 2005, 01:40 IST

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The massive housing and infrastructure projects being built around the city are giving ideas to farmers.

HYDERABAD: Until two years ago, G Srinivas Reddy's life revolved around his daily milk run. He had a dozen buffaloes. To feed them, he used to grow grass on his five acres at Gudavelli near Medchal, 40 km from the city centre.
His daily routine never changed: Milk the animals, pour the milk into tin containers, tie them to his scooter and bowl along to Bowenpally 25 km away and sell the milk in the localities coming up there.
In October this year, he decided there was a faster way of making money. He sold his land for Rs 20 lakh per acre and moved to the city.
He bought a car and now drives around those very localities selling real estate. Hundreds of farmers and dairy keepers on the fringes of the city are doing much the same thing.

Who wants to toil in the field all day and eke out Rs 3,000 per acre from a reluctant land? Wait for the right offer from a realtor, sell out and join the business.
As a result of the real-estate boom in the suburbs, thanks to the hype created by the eight-lane Outer Ring Road project, farmers' lifestyles in Rangareddy district have been transformed overnight.
All around the city, tillers have stopped cultivation in anticipation of handsome offers. This is because speculation fuelled by the ring road has led to inflation of land prices.

An acre that used to sell at less than Rs 2 to 3 lakh two years ago at, say, Maheshwaram, or for that matter near Medchal, some 40 km from the city centre, is being sold at Rs 50 to Rs 1 crore now. The SBH branch at Maheshwaram transacts close to Rs 5 crore a month on land registration.
According to agriculture officials in Rangareddy district, culivation has come down by 50 per cent in the fringe areas that fall within the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) limits. "Farmers are finding real estate a better option than agriculture," said an official.
The massive housing and infrastructure projects being built around the city are giving ideas to farmers.
Until four years ago, farmer B Ramulu thought of little other than his cereal and cotton crops on his 10 acres at Pocharam on the Warangal highway.
Land in his village was priced at Rs 1 lakh per acre but what would he do after selling out?
Then, it was announced that a 'Singapore township' would be built at Pocharam. Within weeks, the prices rose to Rs 5 lakh per acre. Ramulu sold five acres and kept five.
Since then, he keeps an eye on the real estate prices. The last offer he got was for Rs 50 lakh per acre.
Once the mainstay of the local economy, farming holds little interest for farmers on the city fringes.
Where the sleepy acres used to once resonate with the tinkle of cow bells, the suburbs are now resounding to the sound of earth movers.

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