On Thursday afternoon, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao laid the groundwork for the new Secretariat and Assembly building in the State. The location of the Secretariat was the third choice after opposition to Erragadda Chest Hospital and later Bison Polo Grounds. If things go according to the plan, the new Secretariat and Assembly buildings should be ready within the next few years.
But opposition has been building up against the construction of these two buildings as the existing ones are still in a functional state. “They are huge buildings. One of them is a listed heritage site. These buildings have to be brought right down to the foundation. Imagine the dust and pollution that will be generated in the heart of the city. Then all that building debris will have to be dumped somewhere. Why do we need to demolish the buildings? Why can’t they be repurposed?” asks Anuradha Reddy, convenor of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). While the focus has been on Errum Manzil, the fate of heritage G Block inside the Secretariat complex hangs in the balance.
Many citizens are puzzled over heritage sites being targeted for constructing new official complexes instead of finding other open spaces or reusing the existing buildings. “It is an attempt to change the geography of the city. I think the government wants to reach a tipping point where the city’s skyline will change dramatically and look like downtown Manhattan,” says Anant Maringanti of Hyderabad Urban Labs.
One of the first buildings that was sought to be rebuilt was architect Muhammad Fayazuddin’s creation Ravindra Bharathi. An architectural view by architect Hafeez Contractor showed a building appearing like a metal mushroom caught in a concrete wave.
The other heritage buildings and sites that have been in cross hairs over a period of time have been Osmania General Hospital (26.5 acres), Malakpet Racecourse (130 acres), NTR Stadium in Domalguda (14 acres), Erragadda Chest Hospital (65 acres), Errum Manzil (17 acres), Indira Park (76 acres) and Bison Polo Grounds (61 acres). In the early 2016, the land use of NTR Stadium was changed from open to public and semi-public through a GO to facilitate construction of a cultural centre. An architectural mock-up was floated that showed a building looking like smaller White House.
Among the plans unveiled by the government was to transform the area around Hussainsagar Lake into a skyscraper city by building tall buildings at 40 locations around the lake.
Downstream of the historic lake, the plan was to turn the sprawling Indira Park into Vinayak Sagar Lake to allow immersion of Ganesha idols and save the Hussainsagar from pollution. Most of these plans have been stillborn in the face of opposition and intervention by courts and activists. However, the activism has not helped the geological heritage of the city where rock formations have been torn down to create skyscrapers that kiss the sky in the western parts of the city. Under Regulation 13 of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, nine rock formations and precincts were listed for protection.
The hillocks around Durgam Cheruvu measuring about 99 acres have been levelled for various projects. Even the rock formation within the Shilparamam Crafts Village is under threat as the Strategic Road Development Plan envisages a flyover in the area. Once all these projects are completed, Hyderabad will change from a city of minarets and domes to the city of concrete and asphalt ribbons and glass towers soaring into the sky.
