Hyderabad: The government’s decision to repeal GO 111 would delay the finalisation of the master plan for the Hyderabad Metropol-itan Region by another year.
Though Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had asked the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) to prepare a master plan for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Region three years ago, the work has not taken off yet.
Officials say that they could prepare the master plan within three months as per the direction of the Chief Minister, but no meeting was convened by ASCI with stakeholders like health, education, po-wer and industries departments to understand their expectations from the comprehensive master plan.
Municipal administration and urban development authorities, however, say that the comprehensive master plan was put on hold as the government intended to revoke GO 111.
Now that the government has taken a decision on the revocation of GO 111, the officials claim the draft master plan will be ready within 18 months.
The master plan will divide the city into three parts — areas within ORR, beyond ORR and outside a five km radius of the proposed regional ring road. Assessment will also be made for drinking water, drainage, sewage, traffic, transport and power lines in the metropolitan area.
According to sources, as per the draft master plan, all polluting industries from the city would be shifted out and industrial estates which are not in use due to closure will be converted into green areas.
While handing over the job to draft the master plan from Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to ASCI, the Chief Minister had said that instead of depending on a small body like HMDA for the implementation of the master plan, for the comprehensive development of the city, there shall be a larger body consisting of experts drawn from various fields like sewerage, drinking water, power lines, traffic and environment. Funds need to be mobilised not just from GHMC coffers but from various other sources.
An official said that the state government has also asked ASCI to prepare two draft master plans — one taking into consideration the curbs imposed by GO 111 around areas surrounding Osmansagar Lake and Himayatsagar Lake, and another envisaging the successful of revocation of GO 111 curbs.
The MA&UD officials, however, said that ASCI is yet to hold a meeting with the stakeholders.
They said ASCI has prepared a draft plan for areas lying outside the 5 km radius of RRR. But now that the state government has decided to revoke GO 111, ASCI has to prepare multiple plans, which is a time-consuming task.
