HMDA Master Plan For ‘New City’

Times of India

If Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has its way, 
even Charminar may be demolished for wider roads. Likewise, heritage 
structures like Old Jail in Secunderabad, Ek Minar in Nampally and 
King Koti palace will have to demolished to make way for over 100-feet 
roads. In the near future, even lanes and bylanes in the twin cities 
will be 100-120 feet wide. Of course, the road-widening exercise will 
be at a cost of a few lakhs of structures. 

The HMDA has prepared a draft master plan for the erstwhile Municipal 
Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) area of 175 sq km suggesting the new 
road widths, land use changes, ground-level position like open spaces, 
parks, hospitals and schools. 

The draft master plan has been sent to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal 
Corporation (GHMC) for suggestions. The GHMC officials would be 
discussing about it with the field officers at circle level. 

For instance, the road from Punjagutta to Jubilee Hills via Road No. 
2, Banjara Hills will become a 200-feet road, while the existing one 
is 100 feet. Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills and Lakdikapul-Sanatnagar road 
are also proposed to be converted to 200 feet as per the master plan. 

If the road widths are modified in the master plan and approved by the 
government, the corporation can widen the road to the proposed width 
at any time in the future. 

Many roads which are not even 60 ft have been proposed to be widened 
to 100 ft to 120 ft in the draft master plan. Several lakhs of 
structures have to be bulldozed, including heritage structures, in the 
city to implement the master plan. 

If the master plan is implemented in toto, the road from RP Road 
(Kingsway) to Secunderabad railway station via Monda Market has been 
proposed to be widened to 120 ft which is now just a 40-ft road. Apart 
from several hundreds of properties, the heritage Old Jail would also 
get affected in the road-widening exercise. 

The Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC), a body under the HMDA, had 
earlier rejected a proposal to construct multi-level parking complex 
in place of the Old Jail. 

Similarly, the RP Road to Mahankali temple road, a bylane which is not 
even 40 ft, has been proposed to be widened to 100 ft. Bazarghat to 
Nampally via Ekminar would be 150 ft wide as per the draft master 
plan. 

“No city in the country has roads of 200 ft wide. There is no 
necessity for internal roads to be so wide,” Indian Institute of 
Architects, AP Chapter, chairman D T Vinod Kumar told TOI. 

“More number of high-rises will come up in the city leading to further 
congestion if road widths are increased in the master plan. As per GO 
86 building rules, the more the road width more floors will be 
permitted in a building,” Vinod Kumar said. 

Apart from increasing the existing road widths, nearly 100 new roads, 
including Nalgonda crossroads-Dabeerpura, Akbarbagh-Saidabad and 
several internal roads with a width of 60 ft to 80 ft, have been 
incorporated in the master plan. Most of them are located in the GHMC 
south zone. The Khairatabad-Begumpet road along the railway track has 
been proposed to be upgraded to 100 ft. 

When contacted, GHMC chief city planner B Purushottam Reddy said 
though the roads have been proposed with increased width in the master 
plan it does not mean they would be widened immediately. 

Dismissing the hypothesis `road width increase leads to congestion’, 
the CCP said since there was a clause of plot size for giving 
permissions for high-rise it would not lead to congestion. 

The HMDA is likely to call for objections and suggestion on the draft 
master plan by June-end by releasing a notification.