Master plans for 141 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are most likely be ready by the year-end while a fresh one for Hyderabad capital region will be completed in 18 months after holding discussions with all stakeholders, said Minister for Municipal Administration, IT and Industries K.T. Rama Rao on Friday.
“We have tried to integrate the five existing master plans for twin cities, but now, we have decided to go for a new one to take into consideration the removal of GO 111 for an environment-friendly document,” he said, after inaugurating the 11th Hyderabad Property Show 2022 organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), Hyderabad, at Hitex.
The three-day show exhibits the latest 15,000 offerings of apartments, villas and others, from the industry and allied institutions suiting different budgets.
‘Lakes will be protected’
Allaying fears expressed over scrapping of GO 111, the Minister said that lakes would be protected and kept clean. But, since the capital was no longer dependent on the twin reservoirs of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar for drinking water being pumped from Krishna and Godavari rivers, “nobody should have any objection if the 84 villages under its ambit get benefited”.
“When the GO was issued in 1996, 27% of the drinking water needs were met by these reservoirs. Now, we have sufficient water supply of 600 million gallons per day and plan to pump another 300 MLD. Soon, 100% sewerage of 2,000 MLD will be treated with more than ₹3,000 crore to build the treatment plants,” he said.
Mr. Rama Rao maintained that people from these 84 villages cannot be held ‘hostage’ anymore as the land rates have skyrocketed elsewhere. “Every party has promised to remove this restriction and there is no meaning in criticising us now. We will ensure the development of this region and will ascribe to the environment norms,” he promised.
“Cities are engines of growth and we need to take care of them by improving infrastructure or we will fail as a nation,” he said. “The TRS government led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been providing progressive, corrupt-free governance with law and order and peace, where industries can be set up and infrastructure can be built spending hundreds and thousands of crores without the need to pay a single paisa,” he added.
He advised real estate developers to practise ‘self-regulation’ and not ‘over build’ without paying heed to available infrastructure. “Don’t force us to introduce floor space index (FSI) restrictions with ‘greedy’ constructions,” he remarked.
“Builders should also look beyond Gachibowli, Kokapet, Kollur and the western parts towards Shamirpet, Dundigal and other areas, for equal growth as the Pharma City and medical devices park are coming up,” he said.
Call for training institute
He also urged them to join hands with the government to start a training institute offering courses on construction to provide employment opportunities to locals. “Its a dichotomy when TS people labour hard in West Asia and labourers from other States work here,” he pointed out.
Earlier, CREDAI-Hyderabad president P. Rama Krishna Rao and secretary V. Rajasekhar Reddy requested for water, power and environment clearances to be made part of the online permission system as it was taking three to four months. Other industry representatives Ch. Ramachandra Reddy and D. Muralikrishna Reddy also spoke.
