Migrant citizens also own up Hyderabad, HMDA biggest urban development body: KTR

HYDERABAD: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao on Tuesday launched ‘Lakes Development Programme’ at Khajaguda Lake. The programme was aimed at rejuvenating and developing 50 water bodies in and around Hyderabad.

Speaking at the event, KTR said that the periphery of the lakes would have walking tracks, landscaping, open gyms, benches, toilets, lights for evening walks, play area for children, gazebos, amphitheater and other facilities.

Of the 50 lakes, 25 were in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits and the remaining 25 in Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) limits. The Minister handed over MoU certificates to real estate development companies which had adopted lakes for development. With a call to action, he urged them to carry out the development process to world-class standards.

On the occasion, KTR said that Durgam Cheruvu turned into a huge tourist attraction after the lake was developed and said that there would be more such head turners. He said that the idea of developing the lakes was conceived when the State government wanted to create spaces for senior citizens to take walks, for people to come with their children and other family members and spend time in leisure.

The minister spoke about the rapid growth in Hyderabad in the past eight years in IT, life sciences and other sectors and the world class infrastructure created here. “Hyderabadis are owning up, drawing pride from development on all fronts. We have just begun our journey. There are many plans,” said KTR.

Giving a sneak peek into a few of the plans for Hyderabad, the Minister said that in future, Hyderabad would have at least 250 km of Metro line in and around the city and all the buses in Hyderabad would be electric. Stating that no other city in India had the future and potential that Hyderabad would have, KTR added that plans were afoot for the expansion of medical devices park, another world class film city, an international-standard sports city, and an academic city. Referring to a couple of anecdotes, the minister said Amaravathi CRDA was supposed to be the biggest urban development authority in India. But, now that nothing was happening there, he said HMDA remained the largest. On a lighter note, he said: “to my misfortune, I had quoted a friend’s observation drawing a comparison between AP and Telangana and the TVs had blown in out of proportion.”

All cities in AP are good. Guntur, Vizag and Vijayawada were all good, he quipped.

He had recalled a Malayalam movie, in which Prithviraj was the lead character, shot in Hyderabad and it’s depiction as a road in Bengaluru. However, a journalist, hailing from Kerala, tweeted that it was indeed a Hyderabad road and that’s how people in Hyderabad were owing up the city.