Hyderabad: Ridiculing the claim by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) who said that the cost of Musi Riverfront Development project has been increased to Rs 1.5 lakh crore by the Congress government, chief minister A Revanth Reddy clarified saying that he had announced that the Telangana government was going to spend the amount for the development of Hyderabad in the next five years, and not just on the Musi project.
Addressing the Assembly during a short discussion on the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection (HYDRA) held on Friday, Revanth Reddy said that no estimates were prepared on the project yet. He added that the Telangana government was calling for a global tender to appoint experts as consultants to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) from across the world.
“For any project, first the line estimates are prepared, then the proposals are submitted to the prime minister or the union ministers concerned, and if they agree, they will call for the DPR. It was the BRS government which constructed Kaleshwaram project which still doesn’t have a DPR, and we all know about what happened to Medigadda barrage,” Revanth Reddy pointed out.
The Telangana chief minister said that there were 10,800 structures in the buffer zone of the Musi nalas in the 55 km stretch of the river’s flow in Hyderabad, for which enumeration will be done before relocating them.
“There are buildings and huts of the poor people along the Musi. For the five months the officials have been tirelessly working on how to go about the project. First we want to know who is in the position of those structures,” he said.
He said that the Telangana government was considering four proposals to relocate those living in those structures. One was that the poor people who have been squatting by the Musi would be given 2bhk houses. The Telangana government is considering giving land for land, compensating those who have already constructed houses by paying them so as to enable them to construct houses in government land elsewhere, and even compensating them as per the Land Acquisition (Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Act of 2013, said Revanth Reddy.
He said the expert consultants who will get the tender for preparing DPR will be responsible for estimating how much money is needed, what to construct, how to source funds for the project etc. “There will suggest whether there will be IT corridors, Disney World-style parks, entertainment zones, and any other establishments on the riverfront,” he said.
Revanth said that he had estimated that Rs 1.5 lakh crore was needed for the development of Hyderabad because the regional ring road (RRR) itself will cost Rs 30,000 crore, radial roads in the city would cost Rs 15,000 crore, extension of metro could cost Rs 24,000 crore, supplying drinking water to Hyderabad from Sunkisala and other sources to cost Rs 2,000 crore, and bringing Godavari water to fill Osmansagar would cost Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore.
“We are coming up with concrete proposals, and this person is jumping like a pig with its tail cut-off,” he quipped, referring to KTR’s allegations.
He also informed the house that it was the Congress government which was responsible for taking historic steps for supplying drinking water to Hyderabad.
“It was in 1965 that Manjeera water was supplied to Hyderabad. In 1982 Congress government used Singur project to supply water to Hyderabad. In 2004, after years of struggle by the then CLP leader P Janardhan Reddy that Krishna Phase-I was materialised, followed by Phase-II in 2008 and Phase-III in 2015, when Godavari Phase-I was also completed,” he explained.
