KUDA fails to keep its promise

KUDA fails to keep its promise
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Highlights

Four-and-a-half decade is by no means an excusable and compensable delay especially when it has something to do with the development of a rapidly growing city like Warangal. After repeated postponements, the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA), which promised to unveil the draft Master Plan-2041 on Friday after the board meeting, again failed to do so.

Warangal: Four-and-a-half decade is by no means an excusable and compensable delay especially when it has something to do with the development of a rapidly growing city like Warangal. After repeated postponements, the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA), which promised to unveil the draft Master Plan-2041 on Friday after the board meeting, again failed to do so.

If what had delayed in the past is attributed to the previous governments’ apathetic approach, the inordinate delay in finalising the draft Master Plan now due to problems that the authorities have failed to overcome for the last few years.

Firstly, the government did not appoint KUDA Board for many years. When it happened finally with Marri Yadava Reddy taking over the reins of the Urban Development Authority, it was presumed that implementation of a new Master Plan was just a matter of time. However, it was not to be even after one-and-a-half-year.

For umpteen number of times, the authorities set deadlines, considering the importance of the Master Plan. The absence of the Master plan has become an obstacle in clearing thousands of applications under layout regularisation scheme (LRS). It was also estimated that clearance of LRS applications could rake in an income of nearly Rs 150 crore to the urban authority.

Against this backdrop, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao, who recently chaired the KUDA meeting, termed the Master Plan as futuristic and said it would be notified on April 15. Then there would be a timeframe of 45 days to receive objections and suggestions from the denizens before issuing final notification by June 15.

Thereafter in a meeting on April 17, the Deputy Chief Minister K Srihari had revealed that the proposed Master Plan will have a Kakatiya Regional Ring Road in addition to the Outer Ring Road (ORR), an international sports complex at Yelkurthy under Dharmasagar and a recreation zone near Devunur hillocks.

Speaking to The Hans India, KUDA chairman Marri Yadava Reddy said: “The draft plan is in final stages and it will be surely be put on public domain after the board meeting on May 11.” He reasoned the delay due to internal work.

Forum for Better Warangal president Pulluru Sudhakar said: “There is an imperative need to introduce the Master Plan at the earliest as it has been hampering the city development for decades besides causing numerous problems to the denizens.”

All these years, the city and its suburbs witnessed a huge transformation due to change in land use pattern. Parts of industrial zones have become residential colonies and vice versa, with which denizens are facing problems in getting construction permissions, he said, referring to the importance of master plan.

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