Hyderabad's apolitical development is Telangana administration's motto: KTR

HYDERABAD: Irrespective of parties and places, development of the entire Hyderabad is the ultimate motto of the Telangana government, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister K.T. Rama Rao said in a high-level review meeting on the development of the Old City of Hyderabad.

He outlined the ongoing projects and advancements made in the meeting regarding the provision of drinking water, electricity supply, transportation infrastructure, maintaining sanitization, conservation of historic structures, and other fronts.

The Minister said that as part of the Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP) undertaken by GHMC, the works related to the strengthening of the road network in the Old City area were going on at a brisk pace and several fly-overs, construction of roads were completed. The Minister said that works, as part of the programme, worth several crores of rupees are underway. KTR said that maintenance of major roads was going on effectively under the CRMP program initiated by GHMC.

Stating that widening of roads in the densely populated Old City was a challenge, he asked officials to speed up the works in localities where road widening is essential. The MA&UD Minister said that the State government was ready to allocate funds for land acquisition for development works underway in the Old City. He said that works related to traffic junctions, construction of foot over bridges and the construction of bridges over Musi, where necessary, was going on at a brisk pace.

Minister KTR said that drinking water supply had improved in the Old City in the last eight years and that more than Rs. 1200 crores was spent for the development of drinking water facilities. KTR said that over 2.5 lakh connections were taken in the Old City under the free water supply scheme of the Telangana government. He said that HMWSSB took up several initiatives to strengthen the sewage water system. As part of it, he said, Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and other works were taken up in the Old City.

The Minister said that the power supply system improved tremendously in the Old City along with other parts of Hyderabad. The Minister said that GHMC’s special measures helped in achieving a lot of progress in sanitation management in the Old City in the past eight years.

He added that special attention was paid to maintain sanitation in tourist places including Charminar, Chowmahalla Palace, Madina, Mecca Masjid and Salarjung Museum. Along with various health schemes provided by the State government, 84 Basthi Dawakhanas were set up in the region, he added.

The MA&UD Minister said that plans were ready for restoration of Mir Alam Mandi and that the proposals for the construction of a six-line cable bridge over Mir Alam tank are in the DPR stage. KTR said that as several heritage structures were located in Old City, large-scale efforts were taken up for their conservation.

Expressing satisfaction over the priority given to the development of the Old City, Akbaruddin Owaisi thanked the Telangana government, with a special mention to KTR. A few programmes that were needed in the Old City were taken to the notice of the MA&UD Minister by Owaisi. The AIMIM floor leader said that they were ready to extend all forms of support and cooperation to implement the State government’s development programmes at rapid pace and that they would work with the government departments in this regard.

Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, AIMIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, MP Dr G Ranjith Reddy, Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari, Special Chief Secretary of MA&UD Department, Arvind Kumar, MD of HMRL NVS Reddy and officials from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), TSSPDCL and other departments participated in the meeting held on Tuesday.