As part of his two-day visit to the nation's capital, Telangana's Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao met with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, June 23. The Minister told the media that he requested Rajnath Singh to transfer certain defence lands in Hyderabad to the state government for development of skyways and other various infrastructure projects. This has been a long-pending demand of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Telangana.
KTR addressed the media following his meeting with the Defence Minister and said that the state government had been requesting the Union government to transfer defence lands for construction of skyways and other projects, but hadn’t received any response so far. He stated that Telangana has received no support from the Union government for nine years. KTR also said that the state government seeks the support of the Union government to strengthen the public transport system in Hyderabad.
Stating that he met Rajnath Singh to make the request for defence lands once again, KTR said, "Defence Ministers are changing but there is no change in the stand of the Union government." He added that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had previously met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the request, but there was no favourable response yet.
KTR said that if the Defence Ministry comes forward to give 96 acres of land for the Jubilee Bus Stand-Rajiv Rahadari skyway and 56 acres for the Paradise Circle-Medchal ORR skyway, the state government would give alternate lands of equal value. “While the skywalk at Uppal has been completed, the work on the skyway at Mehdipatnam was stalled as the Defence Ministry had not given the permission and there is a need for half an acre of land,” KTR said.
He added that the Telangana government has also sought one acre of defence land for a road to link Golconda and about five acres near Ibrahim Bagh. “The state government has sought the transfer of unused defence lands which are on lease in Secunderabad Cantonment to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) so that hospitals and community halls can be constructed for local residents,” the Minister said.
KTR said that the state government completed several works under Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP) but the work at Rasoolpura in Hyderabad could not be completed as the Union Home Ministry was yet to transfer about four acres of land. He said he would try to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss this issue.
KTR said he would also meet Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday to once again request approval of DPRs (detailed project reports) for the 31 km-long Metro Rail line from Lakdi Ka Pul to BHEL and from Nagole to LB Nagar. He also sought support from the Union government for the construction of Metro Rail from Patancheru to Hayat Nagar.
KTR questioned why the Union government was hesitant to cooperate with Telangana government when it can sanction Metro Rail to 10 small cities in Uttar Pradesh. He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should thank the Telangana people and government for their contribution in the nation’s development, including that of relatively poor states ruled by the BJP.