The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Plan big for development of urban areas: Chief Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 03, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Plan big for development of urban areas: Chief Minister

Staff Reporter

International workshop on `Megacity Project, Hyderabad' inaugurated

MEGA EVENT: Konrad Hagedorn of the Humboldt University of Berlin with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Mayor Teegala Krishna Reddy and experts at an international workshop on Megacity project, Hyderabad, on Thursday. — Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has emphasised the need to aim and plan for futuristic mega cities in the wake of urban agglomerations becoming bigger by the day and increasing migration of people from rural areas to cities.

Inaugurating the international workshop on `Megacity Project, Hyderabad', a project funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, for `sustainable development of Mega cities of tomorrow', Dr. Reddy said poverty was more prevalent in rural areas forcing rural people to come to urban areas.

Initiative taken

"We have taken new initiatives to develop infrastructure in urban areas to the best of our abilities and giving priority for improving amenities in slums for which 40 per cent of budgetary allocation is made besides leveraging DFID and World Bank funds," Dr. Reddy said.

For sustainable development, resources should be improved, expenditure monitored and administration made accountable. Then, in next few years, transformation would come through better employment opportunities and upgradation of skills, he said.

"Andhra Pradesh is bigger than many European countries and is endowed with vast human resource pool with managerial and technical skills. With our economy doing well registering 7.8 to 8 per cent in recent years, we are on path of progress to improve general living conditions of poor in urban areas, " the Chief Minister said. He hoped the Indo-German delegation would dwell upon several issues and throw up innovative ideas to improve quality of life for urban poor.

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Koneru Ranga Rao said Megacity initiatives could be linked with State Government programmes.

He later launched the website of the Megacity, Hyderabad, project.

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