Telangana IT and Municipal minister KT Ramarao wants the union urban development ministry to include Karimnagar in the next phase of Smart Cities development project instead of Hyderabad. At the same time, Ramarao pitched for a special development scheme for Hyderabad with Rs 30,370 crore, based on a study report prepared during the second UPA government.
This is going to be the major campaign by KT Ramarao, after he donned the mantle of municipal and urban development minister. The silent campaign for the Hyderabad special development funding was launched last year by his father and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao , when he looked after the MA&UD . Now, in his first meeting with union urban minister as state’s Municipal minister, KTR sought to carry forward the unfinished agenda of his father. In the recent past no state chief minister urged the centre to implement a crucial report prepared for the development metropolitan cities in India. In the words of a senior official, the credit goes to KCR and KTR.
Karimnagar, which is the important city in North Telangana, occupies a strategic position in the developmental scheme of TRS after Warangal. As per 2011 census population of Karimnagar city is 261, 185 while that of the metropolitan region is 297,447. Ramarao, who was in Delhi yesterday, presented a plan for the development of Karimnagar as smart city. In his view, the proposed amount of Rs 100 crore, which each designated smart city gets every year is grossly inadequate for Hyderabad. Instead, he urged the union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu to introduce a new scheme for metropolitan cities like Hyderabad. He referred to the report submitted by Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia in 2011 and sought funding as per Ahluwalia’s recommendations.
The Isher Judge Ahluwalia High Powered Expert Committee was appointed to estimate the investment requirements for urban infrastructure services for all major cities in India. According to the committee Hyderabad required Rs.30,370 crore investment. For drinking water and sewerage alone, it requires Rs.15,000 crore. Another Rs.20,661 crore is needed for strategic road development project to provide signal free roads, junction improvement and construction of bridges.
In the light of Ahluwalia recommendations, the requirement of Hyderabad goes beyond the plan of smart city which fetches just Rs 100 crore per year, which in fact would be more useful for cities like Karimanagar, Ramarao told Naidu. He requested Venkaiah Naidu that Hyderabad be dropped from the list of smart cities and Karimnagar be included in its place.
