Hyderabad: Telangana chief secretary of Urban Development Arvind Kumar, on Friday called for the recognition of more historic places in the city as world heritage sites by UNESCO.
Arvind Kumar participated in the 14th edition of the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (popularly called I.I.I.D) Design Awards 2022, held at the JRC Convention Center in Filmnagar. and handed lifetime achievement awards to Sona Chatwani and Raaj Sree Ram for their effort in the field of Interior Designing.
Chairman, IIID, Manoj Wahi said that the Awards known to be the oldest industry awards in the interior designing industry were given under 12 various categories honouring interior design professionals in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
He also urged the government of Telangana that IIID wants to have its own Center for Excellence as it is a long-felt need.
Speaking on the occasion, Arvind Kumar said “Hyderabad is a fast-growing city. Recently the famous photographer Raghu who visited Hyderabad made a very good observation claiming that the buildings in city were different from the rest of the country.”
“They have music in them, and they speak. We would like to document this. HMDA has tied up with Raghu Rao to bring out a Coffee Table book in the next year,” added Arvind Kumar.
“Since TS B-Pass, Telangana layout and building permission approval along with self-certification system, we have given sanctions to 1,96,544 building plans to date,” said the secretary.
Highlighting the recent developments in the state, Arvind said, “we have recently announced a cool roofing policy and made EV charging facility mandatory in some buildings while making 25 percent of the parking space earmarked for EV Charging.”
Seeking IIID-HRC to uptake lake restoration in the city, Arvind said, “we have identified 185 lakes to be restored. 90 of them were adopted. We need more to be adopted.”
“The adoption includes strengthening the bund, creation of greenery, beautification and utilisation of open spaces,” said Arvind urging interior designers, architects, and builders in the audience to come forward to adopt them.
Similarly, he said 85 traffic junctions have been improved. work on 114 is in progress. “Under HMDA limits itself there are 126 traffic junctions. If there are any traffic junctions in your locality, please encourage them to be adopted,” he told the audience.
“We are also working on reviving the heritage structures, and step-wells. The ideal mix of old and new structures makes a city a healthy one,” claimed Arvind adding that a total of 24 step wells are either restored or under restoration.
Speaking further Arvind Kumar added that if design intervention happens in public spaces, the city would turn more vibrant.
During the event, the senior bureaucrat of the municipal administration mooted the idea of an MoU with IIID to make Hyderabad a better place.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Masrath Fatima | 
