Green pathways for walking or running with or without a pet, an adjacent cycling track, cool breeze from the shade of trees all over, clear water minus the stink and rock formations to add to the grandeur.
This is the transformation plan for the Durgam Cheruvu or the ‘Secret Lake’ at Madhapur in a joint project proposed to be taken up by the K. Raheja Group in partnership with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC).
Raheja Group, which has the popular Inorbit Mall facing the iconic lake, has already committed ₹ 2.5 crore for the work as part of its corporate social responsibility and has already prepared a perspective plan on doing the project in three phases for total change of current bleak scenario of dried up water body, garbage and encroachments.
“This is going to be a beautiful opportunity for the city and we are happy to partner with the Government to execute it. There is interest from both sides and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao has asked us to complete the first phase within a year,” said Kishore Bhatija, K. Raheja’s Managing Director – Real Estate Development, in a select briefing on Thursday.
While the total cost of the entire works is not yet been disclosed, the Raheja Group, besides, having its own project monitoring group was also holding discussions on having a distinct group of officers/engineers from the Government departments to execute the project.
Encroachments
Tackling encroachments and lake cleaning was civic departments mandate even though issues of operation and maintenance of the water front lake developments are yet to be finalised, said Mr. Bhatija.
“Clearing of the hyacinth has already begun and the Water Board had plugged the flow of sewage into the lake through a diversion channel. Once the sewage treatment plant is upgraded to handling 20 million litres a day, treated water can be let out in the lake,” explained Shrawan Kumar Gone, Director (Operations).
This is the first phase and second phase work would be to build a 2.5 km jogging and cycling track with a central median for benches and signboards.
Children’s play area, yoga corner, kiosks, cafe, barbeque, picnic gazebos and toilets, among others, with rock formations are part of the designs drawn up for the make-over.
Amphitheatre planned
A world class amphitheatre to seat 2,000 people and a car parking for 600 vehicles is also being envisaged in the area. This is apart from an even more interesting proposal to have an elevated walkway bridge amid the dense green foliage to give a forest feel in the last phase which is to be developed by the TSIIC with the designs provided by the Raheja Group.
