MEGA PLAN: German delegates at the international workshop of `Megacity project, Hyderabad' in Hyderabad on Monday. — PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad has grown from a city built for a population of three lakhs to an emerging megacity with 70 lakh residents and a deteriorating quality of life.

So, time is ripe to plan for the birth of a megacity now to ensure sustainable development through appropriate interventions, said High Court Justice V.V.S. Rao here on Monday.

Inaugurating the five-day international workshop of `Megacity Project, Hyderabad', at the Jubilee Hall, Justice Rao said that while cities contributed enormously to the GDP and innovation, they also were hotbeds of deprivation and social unrest.

Under the Megacity Project, it should be the concern of Governments, NGOs and individuals to provide good quality of life to all sections at affordable cost.

Three decades later, one should not ask what went wrong with the project of 2007, he said.

Warning that an unplanned megacity would throw up problems irrespective of the growing GDP, he said it was for the Union and State Governments to provide equal opportunities for livelihood and access to basic amenities to its people.

German funding

Vice-President of the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, Uwe-Jens Nagel said the project, funded by the German Government, was for action-oriented research to identify core issues in the fields of food and nutrition, water, public health, environment, transport, private public partnership and governance reforms.

Co-ordinator of the project Ramesh Chennamaneni said that seven pilot project studies were taken up in the core areas by Indian, German and US scientists and academicians along with stakeholders such as MCH, HUDA, NGOs, and residents welfare associations.

The pilot project reports would be presented in the five-day workshop.

He said this was the preparatory phase for implementation beginning this August.

The objective of the nine-year, Rs.40-crore project would be to develop sustainable development framework and work out an action plan for Hyderabad focusing on core issues.

Ruth Meinzen-Dick of International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, said the project would identify adverse impact on ecological and social aspects as the city became a megacity and suggest interventions through research and communication to ensure sustainable development.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail