City roads are for people, says K T Rama Rao

Hyderabad: Renovation and beautification of roads was not for Ivanka Trump but for Hyderabad and its people, said Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao.

At the inauguration of the Ayyappa Society Junction underpass on Wednesday, he said, “2018 is the year of execution. All the programmes taken up by government will be realised.”

Several projects as part of Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) would be inaugurated in 2018 and 2019. The plan was being taken up in four phases with at an outlay of Rs 23,000 crore. Of this, works worth Rs 3,200 crore are already under way. Works worth Rs 2,900 crore had been sanctioned, he said.

The Minister congratulated GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy and his staff for the corporation securing the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status from Swacch Bharat Mission.

There was a delay on the part of the Centre in granting permissions to construct two elevated corridors, from Jubilee Bus station (JBS) to Rajiv Rahadari and from Patny to Bowenpally. “From almost one year, there has been correspondence goi-ng on with the Union Government and the defe-nce ministry. We asked for land for the two expressways. Despite the state government being ready to give land and compensation as requested by the Union Government, the Centre is not taking a decision. The state government is ready with the resources, DPR, finances for the project, but the central government is not responding optimistically on the defence lands,” he said.

On the other hand, GHMC was working with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for a skyway from Uppal to Narapalli and the foundation for this would be laid soon. “The P.V. Narsimha Rao expressway will be further extended, as we will be working along with NHAI,” said the Minister.

He iterated that SRDP was the brainchild of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who wanted to make Hyderabad a global city.  “But global cities are not built in a day. It will take time. New cities can be built easily as there is a lot of land available. But for cities like Hyderabad, it will take time as we are working on war-footing to rectify loopholes. In the next six-seven years, Hyderabad will be a global city,” he said.

Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy, Seriling-ampalli MLA Arekapudi Gandhi and Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan also participated in the programme.