Onus of developing urban parks redistributed

A meeting convened by Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi on Tuesday redistributed the responsibility of development of forest blocks in and around Hyderabad as ‘urban parks’ among various departments, including non-forest ones.

The 52 identified locations for urban parks have been distributed among departments namely Forests, HMDA, GHMC, TSIIC, Forest Development Corporation, and Hyderabad Metro Rail.

Of them, the Forest department would take care of development of 15 parks, while the HMDA would develop 17 parks. The TSIIC was given 11 parks, GHMC three, Forest Development Corporation four, and the HMR two.

These parks are located in Hyderabad and six districts surrounding it, including Ranga Reddy, Medchal, Yadadri, Medak, Sangareddy, and Siddpet.

The Forest department, upon directions from Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao, identified 188 forest blocks in and around Hyderabad, of which 129 were found to be suitable for development. Of them, 70 would be developed into forest conservation zones by fencing them off. Seven blocks would be developed into eco-tourism zones, and 52 into urban parks, which would serve as nature-friendly recreation zones for urban population.

The meeting discussed funding and staff requirement for development of such parks, and it was decided that the departments would press their own funds into the projects. Once completed, the parks would have to be handed over to the Forest department for maintenance.

The eco-tourism projects — three in Medchal and four in Yadadri — would be the responsibility of the Tourism department. Mr. Joshi directed that all these parks be developed within the next two years.

Special Chief Secretary, Forests, Ajay Mishra, Principal Secretary, MAUD, Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Roads and Buildings, Sunil Sharma, Principal Secretary, IT and Industries, Jayesh Ranjan, PCCF P. K. Jha, and Officer on Special Duty in CMO, Priyanka Varghese, participated in the meeting.