Hyderabad master plan is 10 months overdue

Hyderabad: Even as unauthorised constructions and layouts have been mushrooming across the city, officials of the HMDA are unaware about the status of the integrated master plan for the city and its implementation.  

The municipal authority has been turning a Nelson’s Eye even to the instructions given by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who in January asked them prepare a master plan within three months.

After missing out on the deadline, the municipal body handed over the master plan job to a private consultant and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI). Officials now claim that the nodal agencies have not been updating HMDA about the status of city layout to the extent that they are clueless about giving building and layout permission to the zonal development plan, area development plan , and road development plan.

When HMDA integrated five master plans, including old MCH area and Hyder-abad Airport Development Authority (HADA), Hydera-bad Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Cybe-rabad Development Autho-rity (CDA) and Metropolitan Development Plan (MDP) 2031, last year, officials were shocked to learn that as many as 150 villages have been missing out within its jurisdiction.

The HMDA, with the help of Central Survey Office, fixed the boundaries of 40 villages and rectified 35,000 survey numbers in them. Officials even claimed that 80 per cent of the integrated master plan has been resolved with the maps procured from Central Survey Office. They said HMDA would rectify all errors in the master plan by January.

In July last year, the HMDA jurisdiction was divided into eight zones and 25 special teams constituted to rectify errors in the integrated master plan.

The authorities now say they were still clueless about the master plan.