KTR seeks plans for urban growth

Municipal administration and urban development minister, K.T. Rama Rao, on Thursday said cities will play a major role in the growth story of the state in the future.

While holding a review with chairpersons and senior officials of urban development authorities (UDAs) in the state, Mr Rama Rao said that 43 per cent of the state’s population lives in cities and the number would increase to 50 per cent in the future.

He instructed the officials to prepare detailed master plans for each of the UDAs keeping future development and increasing populations in mind and that the UDAs should ensure revenue is mobilised from available sources to fund the various development activities being planned.

The minister asked officials to prepare a detailed report on the land banks within UDA limits in the state. He said that the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority had been implementing innovative schemes and asked the officials to emulate HMDA’s best practices. He asked them to focus on green and industrial zones, water bodies and the development of suburban areas in the master plans.

Reminding those present that the government had recently announced the layouts regularization programme for all the new municipalities in the state, he asked the officials to get tough on illegal layouts. MA&UD principal secretary, Arvind Kumar, UDA chairpersons, Marri Yadava Reddy (Warangal), G.V. Rama Krishna Rao (Karimnagar), Ravinder Reddy (Siddipet) and Prabhakar Reddy (Nizamabad) attended the meeting.