Telangana: Pharma Village Plan Changed, 10 To Be Set Up

HYDERABAD: As part of a plan to decentralise industry and decongest Hyderabad, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced on Monday plans to develop 10 pharma villages surrounding the city, on the outskirts, abetting national and state highways and having rail and airport connectivity.

He said this would ensure equitable development of the city on all sides, as against the previous government's decision to set up Hyderabad Pharma City at a single location, on 20,000 acres in Yacharam of Rangareddy district.

In an informal chat with mediapersons at his chambers in the Secretariat on Monday, on the occasion of New Year, the Chief Minister said that the Congress government did not scrap Hyderabad Pharma City or Airport Metro Rail projects launched by the previous government, but only remodelled them to avoid becoming “white elephants” like the Kaleshwaram project and ensure that they serve the needs of people effectively and help in the growth of state economy.

He said the Hyderabad Pharma City and Airport Metro Rail projects devised by the previous government were financially unviable and would, eventually, have become a liability for the government, like Kaleshwaram.

The BRS government had proposed a Metro Rail extension from Raidurg to Shamshabad airport (31 km) and BHEL to Lakdikapul (26 km).

“These two routes were devised not in the interest of the public, but for their vested interests, like enhancing land value. Most of the land parcels abetting these Metro routes were owned by BRS leaders and their close aides. For this reason, I have proposed to extend the Metro Rail from LB Nagar to Shamshabad airport via Owaisi Hospital (Santosh Nagar) and Gowliguda bus station to Falaknuma and further to Shamshabad airport. This will be more useful to people and will also decongest road traffic,” Revanth said.

The Chief Minister also proposed to extend the Metro Rail from Miyapur to BHEL, BHEL to Patancheru and Raidurg to Financial District, saying that the modified Metro routes would facilitate optimum utilisation of financial resources, covering longer distances with lower expenditure.

“With the same investment that was proposed by the previous government, we can modify Metro routes, make it more useful for people and make the project financially viable,” Revanth Reddy said.

About pharma villages, he said he plans to set up each pharma village on about 500 to 1,000 acres, which will be like a township, having schools, colleges, hospitals and food courts, among other facilities. Each pharma village would have about 10 pharma companies, he said.

Revanth Reddy also talked about his medium and long-term plans of setting up similar hubs for health, automobile and education sectors on the city outskirts to bring in world-class facilities to the city.