CM Discusses City Development Initiatives with Top Dubai Planners

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and a team of officials held detailed discussions with top global city planners, designers and master plan developers in Dubai on developing the Musi riverfront in Hyderabad and related issues.

The state government has decided to develop the 56-km Musi River front, green urban spaces and explore commercial linkages and investment models. Revanth Reddy had discussed the Musi riverfront development prospects with the Port of London Authority in London on Thursday.

In Dubai, Revanth Reddy and the TS delegation undertook a study trip of the Dubai Waterfront and had an aerial perspective of the entire project from atop a skyscraper on Sunday afternoon.

The team was shown the linkage between water, land and building and its socio-economic impact on hyper-local communities. The team also discussed project management issues, including international funding and investment possibilities, execution challenges, costs and timelines, and their possible replication in Hyderabad as part of the River Musi rejuvenation project.

The meetings in Dubai were an extension and continuation of the different meetings with over 70 different major global design, planning and architecture firms, consultancies and experts. During the discussions, global firms showcased their work in aligned areas and presented projects past and currently underway in Europe, Middle East and major cities globally.

Almost all the firms expressed an interest in partnering with Hyderabad and Telangana state. They would be visiting the in the coming days to take the consultations forward.

Welcoming the best-in-class firms to Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy said that historically, cities have evolved near water. Rivers and lakes define cities naturally. The rarity of Hyderabad, once the Musi is rejuvenated, is that the city would be defined by a river and several major lakes.

Asking these firms to evolve early plan prototypes with highest ambition, Reddy said that he was trying to benchmark Hyderabad against the best global cities.

Officials who participated in the discussion included V. Sheshadri, Ajith Reddy, and the MA&UD team, comprising Dana Kishore and Amrapali Kata.