Hyderabad picked for strategic location, defence units

Hyderabad: The Eastern Naval Command is said to have decided to set up a VLF (very low frequency) station spread over 2,900 acres at Pudur in Ranga Reddy district. The correspondence between the Centre and the state government to secure forest clearance had been going on since 2011. After raising several queries on deforestation and imposing compulsory afforestation norms, the Union ministry of environment and forests accorded the final approval for diversion of forest land on November 14.

A CMO official said, “The Eastern Naval Command is keen on setting up the VLF station on the city outskirts since it considers Hyderabad to be a strategic location for defence development and research. The city houses several defence units.” “At one stage during the Congress regime, the government expressed its inability to allot land identified by the Navy with the Centre refusing to give forest clearance. The TRS government revived the project and pursued it with the Centre,” he said. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao thanked the Centre for approving the  project and urged it to commence the work at the earliest.