Government cannot invite tenders till December Official apathy hits lung spaces

public and the remaining will be kept as a conservation zone into which the public will not be allowed. Departments including Urban Forestry (15 parks), HMDA (17 parks), Tourism Department (7 parks), TSIIC (11 parks), GHMC (3 parks), Forest corporation (4 parks) and HMRL (2 parks) will develop them.

The government issued a GO on May 30, saying that ‘urban parks’ would be developed in 59 of the 188 reserved forest blocks situated within the HMDA limits. Thirty-seven of the proposed 59 urban parks will be developed by agencies other than the forest department — GHMC, HMDA, Hyderabad Metro Rail & tourism department. Accordingly, the State government accorded administrative sanction for `17.75 crore last week to the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Officer on Special Duty.

While the government claims that development of urban parks in reserved forests will give the citizens the much-needed lung space, the officials have not even embarked on the survey to prepare an action plan to protect them. V Krishna, urban biodiversity forestry officer said that since the enforcement of the MCC, the development of urban parks came to a grinding halt as it did not invite tenders. But contradicting him, BLN Reddy, chief engineer from HMDA, said that it had already invited tenders twice during August 8 and September 10.

When asked about MCC, the official said that he would re-confirm with his higher authorities.