Karimnagar town, which was the epicentre of the Telangana statehood movement, is likely to emerge a major tourist destination with the State government sanctioning the Manair river front (MRF) along the shores of the Lower Manair Dam (LMD) reservoir in the Budget presented in the Assembly on Monday.
Minister for Finance Etala Rajender, Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar, and MLA Gangula Kamalakar have been planning to develop the LMD shores on the lines of the Sabharmati riverfront in Gujarat. Accordingly, they had visited the Sabharmati river last year and made proposals, including the same in the State Budget for financial year 2017-2018.
Giving details about the Manair riverfront in Karimnagar town on Monday, Mr. Kamalakar thanked Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Ministers T. Harish Rao, K. Taraka Rama Rao and Mr. Rajender, and Mr. Kumar for allocating ₹506 crore in the Budget, and releasing ₹193 crore for the first phase of the project. Stating that they would development the MRF on the lines of Hong Kong and Macau, he said Karimnagar town would emerge as the most sought-after tourist destination in the State.
Retaining walls
As part of the project, they would construct a check dam to store water up to a distance of 5.5 kilometres from the LMD reservoir and maintain a width of 450 mt. Retaining walls would be constructed to store water up to a height of six metres throughout the year.
With the construction of retaining walls, they would get around 250 acres of land which would be used for gardens, theme parks, lighting parks, laser shows, and recreational facilities such as cottages, hotels, cinema halls, IT towers, cycling track, etc. Boating facility would also be introduced.
A high-level cable-stayed bridge, a first in the State, would be constructed across the MRF connecting Karimnagar town with Sabhaspalli village of Manakondur mandal to ease traffic congestion at Rajiv Rahadhari.
Mr. Kamalakar said a detailed project report would be prepared by the Tata Consultancy Services and work would be taken up within two years.
