The Hindu : Musi to be cleaned up in a month: CM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Musi to be cleaned up in a month: CM

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD May 17. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has set a deadline of one month for cleaning up the reeking Musi. He asked the MCH to get cracking and prepare a Musi action plan to develop the whole thing in an integrated fashion.

Mr. Naidu, who went on a surprise visit of the city on Saturday morning, couldn't hide his displeasure when he stopped at the Chaderghat causeway to see the cleaning up operation. "A good asset has been turned into a liability," he remarked after seeing the mounds of filth being removed from the riverbed.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which is executing the National River Conservation project to reduce pollution of the Musi, has been asked to coordinate with the MCH. If necessary, additional components to beautify the river should be taken up. Mr. Naidu told officials to appoint a consultant and draw up a master plan for Musi development.

He was accompanied by the Ministers, K. Vijayarama Rao, T. Srinivas Yadav, the MLA, C. Krishna Yadav, the Mayor, T. Krishna Reddy, the MCH Commissioner, Chitra Ramchandran, the HUDA vice chairperson, Laxmi Parthasarthy, the HMWSSB Managing Director, M.G. Gopal, and other officials.

Mr. Naidu saw the desilting work in progress at the Dabeerpura nala at different points and instructed officials to clean up the entire 800 km of nalas in the city by outsourcing the work. The 171-km of open drains should be fenced and covered with creepers. He suggested using the silt removed from the nalas for raising the bund. Grass turfing and plantation of different types of flowers should be taken up, he said.

The Chief Minister, who went round different parts of the City, said model footpath would be developed on the road between Nampally and Moazamjahi Market. The flower and fruit market at Jambagh would be shifted to Gaddianaram where sites have been allotted to the traders. He asked the Police and the Marketing Department to coordinate in the shifting of traders. He told the shopkeepers to do retail business from inside their shops and not to spill over to the road.

Mr. Naidu said the open spaces around Chiran Palace would be developed into parks. He inspected the site proposed for development of a Japanese garden at Banjara Hills. Mr. Naidu inspected the junction improvement work at Punjagutta crossroads. He felt a flyover would decongest traffic and wanted the road, particularly on the Punjagutta police station side, to be widened further. Mr. Naidu asked the MCH to develop the Raj Bhavan to Airport road along the Khairatabad-Fatehnagar railway track.

He visited the Khairatabad Railway station, one of the stations on the MMTS route. He wanted all the buildings, which were constructed without leaving the set back and jutting onto the station to be removed. At Lakdikapul, where another station is proposed, he suggested taking over the Babu Jagjivan Ram College land, if necessary. He wanted a beautiful shopping complex to be built and road provided all around to provide easy access on all four sides.

Hereafter, the Chief Minister said, all transformers in the City would be pole-mounted and the power lines would be put in a duct. He asked officials to go for ducting the water and sewerage lines too. The whole thing should be completed within a year. He asked the MCH to put up uni-pole hoardings at 100 locations in the city to generate additional revenue.

He inspected the Saroornagar lake and expressed satisfaction at the way it was being developed. He felt after keeping the water required for the pond, the remaining water could be used for industrial and gardening purpose. All the water bodies hereafter would be developed by the local bodies and the Water, Land and Tree Act would be strictly implemented.

Urdu varsity land

The Maulana Azad National Urdu University, which has been allotted 200 acres of land at Manikonda village in Ranga Reddy district, would not be deprived of its land, Mr. Naidu said.

Commenting on the land dispute between the university and the APIIC, he said no injustice would be done to the Urdu university. It was only a boundary dispute between the two organisations. "I will ask the Ranga Reddy Collector to sort out the problem," he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Musi to be cleaned up in a month: CM

Demolition begins for road-widening

Nala desilting work to be privatised

Awareness on safe sex high in city

Govt. departments ignore Apprenticeship Act