Hyderabad: “Hyderabad needs lot more than what it has. We talk about being a global city, we talk of having global aspirations. But a city which does not have green spaces, graveyards, model markets, footpaths, public libraries, public gymnasiums and night shelters can never be a global city. We are going to build a safe, smart, clean, green Hyderabad. That is the agenda for our party for GHMC polls,” said IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday.
“Our CM has already planned 36 model markets in the city. We have markets, but they are ridiculous. We have plans for 36 model markets. We have plans for 36 model graveyards like what we see in Jubilee Hills called Maha Prasthanam, which doesn’t make you feel like being in a graveyard”
“We have called for tenders worth Rs 2,700 crore to develop roads. We are going to build skyways, multi-grade separators to decongest the city. Coming to roads, I commute more often from Sircilla in Karimnagar district to Hyderabad. From Sircilla to Alwal, it takes me one-and-a-half hours but from Alwal to my home in the city, it takes one hour. This is nonsense. For this, what our CM has planned is from Jubilee Bus Stand till Shamirpet, we need a PVNR kind of expressway. Likewise from Paradise till Kompally, we need another expressway.”
“The CM has a plan to build a 44-km six-lane express highway along the bank of Musi. It will create a beautiful river front, something like the Necklace Road… We have a plan to build a beautiful suspension bridge across Durgam Cheruvu. From Ambedkar University, if you go along Road No. 45, we should be able to go right to Inorbit Mall.”
“We have submitted a loan proposal for Rs 20,000 crore to BRICS Bank. When our CM was in China, he met the bank’s president, K.V. Kamat. The city does not have night shelters — we are in the middle of cold wave — and we have so many people sleeping on footpaths even today.”
“The Centre talks about Smart Cities. Hyderabad is a smart city, so is Kakinada. Hyderabad has a population of 1 crore, while Kakinada has less than 8 lakh and both of them get the same quantum of money. How is this even accepted? This is illogical.
“Our CM wrote back to the Centre saying ‘you have to have one more category. You can’t have all smart cities because one size doesn’t fit all. The biggest problems for the city roads is the sewerage system. The biggest villain for a road, especially a BT Road, is water. Wherever there is stagnation of water, the road is gone. Unfortunately in our city, the sewerage system is 100 years old. Nobody knows where it starts, where it ends.”
