The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TDP leader roots for Basar

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Sunday, Jan 07, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP leader roots for Basar

Special Correspondent

`IITs in Guwahati and Kharagpur are in backward areas'

S. Venugopala Chary

HYDERABAD: Senior Telugu Desam leader S. Venugopala Chary has contested the Government's claim that because of poor infrastructure at Basar Medak was being preferred for locating IIT.

At a press conference, Mr. Chary who is also the convenor of the all-party committee for securing IIT at Basar said that the project was being shifted to Medak in violation of a unanimous resolution adopted by the State Assembly. "This is being done to benefit Congress leaders and real estate dealers who had bought land on the city outskirts," he alleged.

The argument that IITs should be located close to a city didn't hold much water as IITs in Guwahati, Kharagpur and Kanpur were in backward areas and did not have even Basar's facilities.

Highlighting facilities

He said the previous Government had earmarked 1,095 acres for the institute, laid roads, created Basar Development Authority and initiated the process for providing drinking water supply from Godavari at a cost of Rs.13 crore.

Basar had good road connectivity. As for railways, Rs. 1 crore was spent on building a platform and a similar amount was being spent now to develop the station. Six trains stop at Basar, four of them shuttle services from Secunderabad to Nanded, which is just 60 km from Basar. The Prime Minister had cleared a Rs. 500 crore plan for building an international airport by August 2008. The domestic airport would be ready by July 30 this year.

Mr. Chary said prominent academicians including V. G. K Murthy, who taught at IIT, Chennai, and Umapathy Reddy who teaches at IIT Kharagpur favoured IIT at Basar.

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