Hyderabad: Few cities have achieved what the Telangana State capital has achieved in such a short span. Right from India’s biggest housing colony project, with 15,660 double bedroom houses, that is ready at Kollur, to Hyderabad being the first city in the country to have a dedicated Disaster Response Force (DRF), the list is long.
As envisioned by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao, the multi-pronged integrated approach to transform Hyderabad into a global, livable, and lovable city, is bearing fruit.
As a result of proactive planning and implementing unique initiatives, the city has witnessed various development projects and citizen-centric services in the last six years. A report on six years of Progressive Governance released by Rama Rao deals with these aspects in detail. A few excerpts:
Walkability index
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s special drive to clear encroachments on pavements and construct new ones in different areas across the city has yielded good results.
The municipal corporation built 430 km of pavements on several stretches. As result, All Walkability Index of 0.68 for Hyderabad is now above the national average of 0.52 as per a Central report. (Walkability index is a function of availability of footpath and pedestrian facility rating).
In all, seven new Foot over Bridges were opened out of 57 proposed FoBs to promote the safety of pedestrians. Efforts are on to increase cycling infrastructure in the city and 10 km of cycling tracks are planned in each zone. This apart, eight skywalks are coming up at busy junctions.
Disaster Response Force
Hyderabad is the first city in the country to have a dedicated Disaster Response Force (DRF) and is also the second city to have an exclusive Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Management (EVDM) wing.
During rains and other calamities, the DRF makes its presence felt. As many as 360 personnel are equipped with advanced rescue machinery to deal with urban floods, clearing water stagnations, building collapses, fire accidents, rail, road accidents, the tree falls, and other emergencies
More importantly, the entire city was disinfected four times as part of safety measures in the wake of Covid-19. During the recent floods, many citizens were safely evacuated from flooded areas by DRF teams.
Theme parks
The country’s first Braille Park is in Hyderabad and the city is turning into a theme park capital. The municipal corporation developed quite a few theme parks, including the Mir-Alam Park – a theme park on Moghal Art, the Panchathanthra Park — Imparting morals and ethical values to the children, Dog Park — Learning of Pets behavior, Braille Park — Park for differently-abled (first of its kind in India), Panchatatva Park — A therapeutic garden of Pancha Bhutas, Play Parks — Children’s Play Area, Transit Park – Fruit-Themed Park and also the Rainwater Harvesting Theme Park about water conservation.
Another 50 theme parks are in progress with different themes and an additional eight theme parks are already opened to the public with a financial outlay of Rs 134 crore and 17 Panchatatva parks on the therapeutic concept have also been opened to the public.
LED streetlights
Installation of LED lights on streets, roadways, and highways is making the City of Pearls like never before. Since the launching of the Rs 564 crore LED project, 87,36,123 units of energy have been saved, and, more importantly, carbon emission reduction by 2,73,176 tonnes was achieved. Further, LED lights were provided to citizens at subsidized rates.
Water supply and sewage treatment
Since 2014, a whopping 4,727 km of water pipeline network was laid. River Godavari and Krishna Phase-3 drinking water supply projects to the city were commissioned on a fast track basis.
As many as 230 storage reservoirs of 400 ML capacity were constructed in peripheral circles and ORR village areas. Not just the domestic sector, an adequate water supply was provided for industries. Hyderabad is one of the few urban agglomerations in India to have water-sufficiency.
In tune with drinking water, the focus was on setting up Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) across the city to decentralize the sewage treatment process. Treating 772 MLD of wastewater is being done through 25 STPs, which is the largest treatment facility infrastructure among metropolitan cities of India. Inducting hi-tech equipment for cleaning of sewer lines to improve the sewer health and prolong the life of sewer lines and elimination of manual scavenging was also done.
Link roads
To ease traffic congestion and reduce the burden on arterial roads, 137 link roads are being constructed with a length of 126.2 km in Hyderabad. Already a few have been opened to traffic. The link roads not only ease traffic flow but also reduce travel distance within the city. It is a one-of-its-kind approach being taken up in Hyderabad to deal with decongesting practices in metropolitan cities.
