Urban development hindered by defence ministry, says KTR

Minister for municipal Administration and urban development K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday, held the Union defence ministry responsible for traffic woes in the Secunderabad and Cantonment areas.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Rao said the state government, along with the HMDA, has allocated `2,500 crores to widen roads and add flyovers in these areas, and has sought 100 acres of defence land for this purpose.

“We offered the defence ministry 600 acres on the city outskirts in lieu of 100 acres within the city. But they are making an unrealistic demand of `30 crores towards loss in property tax to SCB, which the state government has rejected. As a result, the road and flyover works from Paradise to Kompally and JBS to Shamirpet could not be started,” Mr Rao said.

He added that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had taken up the issue first with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then with former Defence minister Manohar Parrikar and finally with present defence minister Nirmala Seetharaman several times over the past three years, but had failed to receive a positive response from the Centre so far.

“I myself visited Delhi many times and took up the issue with the Union defence minister in the past three years. Except for giving assurances that they will look into it, nothing has materialised so far,” added Mr Rao.

Residents of the Secunderabad and Cantonment areas are facing severe hardships as a result of the constantly congested roads and Army restrictions.

“Though the state government is keen to resolve the issue, the Centre is not cooperating with us. Even after four years have passed, we don’t know whether we will get the Centre’s approval to take up road and flyover works in the final year before the elections,” he said.