Integrating the previous five master plans into a single Metropolitan Development Plan (MDP) of 2031 is going to throw up some peculiar challenges to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
For instance, there are quite a few water bodies and survey numbers, as also roads passing through settlements, missing from the locations where they were marked in the earlier master plans.
To eliminate them from the newly-proposed master plan, a quality check would be undertaken on the ground level by a private consultant deployed by HMDA, informed R. Nageshwar Rao, a Planning Officer from the urban development body, while addressing a consultative meeting with the stakeholders and civil society organisations here on Saturday. The meet was organised by the Forum for a Better Hyderabad.
Water bodies' expansion
The quality check may also expand the extent of some of the existing water bodies, as happened in the case of Raviral Tank. The tank, shown to occupy mere 400 acres in the previous plans, is now identified to have spread over double the extent, Mr. Rao informed.
Rigorous work is on to make the MDP foolproof by procuring all village maps and geo-coding their locations through geographical information system (GIS) before correcting the anomalies, Mr. Rao said, after a presentation by a representative from the consultant LEA Associates.
The consultation is part of a series of meetings proposed to be organised across the city, inviting suggestions from the stakeholders, before the draft plan is prepared.
The MDP will encompass 7,757 square km area, and integrate previous five master plans, namely, the erstwhile core area master plan, HUDA master plan, Hyderabad Airport Development Authority master plan, Cyberabad Development Plan, and the Outer Ring Road Growth Corridor plan, with 2031 as the horizon year, Rajesh from the consultation firm informed.
It will incorporate the newly-identified needs based on latest projects such as Metro Rail and Pharma City, while also eliminating certain provisions such as earmarking of the agricultural pockets as conservation zones, which, he said, could prove to be redundant in view of the changed priorities.
Thirteen new theme-based work-and-live cities are being planned along the Outer Ring Road as the transit-oriented growth centres, akin to the satellite townships. The integration process which had begun in July is expected to be completed by December this year.
Development corridors Answering a query during an interactive session, Mr. Rajesh said high-rise development corridors and growth regions are being planned as part of the MDP strategy, so as to curtail the horizontal expansion of the city. To another question about playgrounds and parks, Mr. Rao said 400 acres were already earmarked for the same in the previous master plan, which is being incorporated in the MDP too.
Questions were also raised by the participants pertaining to road space, drainage and water provisions, layout permissions, housing for slum dwellers, merging of the city development plans, participation of people’s representatives and others.
