Hyderabad: The west zone of the city — Gachibowli-Kondapur—Serlingampally — which is gasping for lung space will now get 20 new parks, according to the Biodiversity wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. This announcement comes in the wake of the 2017 Haritha Haram initiatives which reinforce the public-private-partnership (PPP) model for parks and green spaces.
The west zone has just one major green space, the Botanical Garden in Kondapur, and about 143 smaller colony parks spread across just 120 acres approximately. This is much lower than the central zone which has green cover spread across double the area - 260 acres approximately.
V. Damodar, director of the Urban Biodiversity wing, blamed the lack of area for the poor green cover.
Incidentally, the west zone is one of the highest property tax and trade tax generators in the city, collecting about Rs 600 crore from Serlingampally alone. This is also the locality in which many unauthorised buildings have been demolished.
Gita Dendukuri, member of the Methodist Colony Residents Welfare Association, which adopted the PPP model in the early 1990s, says that it takes more than just government intervention to create greener spaces.
“Most of the trees around the colony were planted 20 years ago and this is the result. The IT crowd that moves in and out frequently may not have that commitment for nature,” she said.
The 75-25 partnership model requires residents to invest 25 per cent for the upkeep of the parks and 75 per cent is borne by the corporation. The west zone has 143 colony parks with 130 managed by citizen welfare groups.
