Lingampally transforms into mini-India
■ Reasonable prices, less pollution make it a preferred destination
Lingampally has undergone a metamorphosis and has become a lively, cosmopolitan residential area. Once a railway station of the Nizams from where they travelled to Wadi, it now has an MMTS service for techies, and government employees and has become a place of livelihood. The farms that used to be in front of the railway station are now residential complexes. With international schools and good connectivity, the erstwhile gram panchayat is a preferred residential locality for nonlocals.
Several colonies have come up on land owned by private landlords and sarpanches and named after their heirs like Adarsh Colony, Sri Devi Colony, Venkat Reddy colony. Taxes from the farms were collected by Patels and given to the officials of the Nizams at the Choultry which is now a government high school. The customs office is now a library while the Inspection Bungalow has become a government hospital.
The land opposite the railway station was once farmland and locals say the Nizams used to stable their horses there when they left for other places by train.
About 13 gram panchayats were merged to form the Serilingampalli municipality in 1987, of which Lingampally is one gram panchayat. Since then the locality has developed hugely and continues to do so.
Devulapalli Srinivas, who gave away his land for the MMTS, said, “This place has become a confluence of history and modern culture. The reasonable prices and less pollution make it a preferred destination. Some of the houses cost crores of rupees. People can just be cut-off from the chaos of the city. Most of the Nizam-era works were demolished in the recent past with no traces left of the historical architecture. Price of housing has increased significantly in the last five years. The kind of environment that we are living in is way better than other parts of the financial district, with less pollution.”
Proximity to the financial district, several restaurants, markets and cleaner air are reasons people prefer Lingampally. Government employees tend to park their vehicles at MMTS and travel to the central parts of the city — to Lakdikapul and Nampally — while techies head to Hitec City and vendors towards Borabanda.
L. Venkat Reddy, who took up many of the initiatives for transforming the place, says: “The place had a significance, and now that it is merged in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, there is hardly any scope for further improvement. It is because of the connectivity — be it the railway line or the old Bombay highway — that the area is preferred by people. However, it has reached saturation.”
People mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have made this place their home. Residents say a majority of auto drivers here come from Tuljapur in Maharashtra and belong to one family.
Techie Santosh Phaniram, who is from Vijayawada and works in Madhapur, said, "This place is reasonable and it is well connected to my workplace and close to some good schools. Even though there is no metro, this is one of the very few places in the IT corridor that has better amenities and is liveable. When I have to go back home, I travel to Secunderabad as some of the trains start and end here.”