Patancheru Haphazardly industrialised

Patancheru is an industrial zone located in west zone GHMC limits abutting Mumbai highway. It received a major boost when Indira Gandhi served as the MP of Medak constituency, when she started the Industrial park in Patancheru. The area is also home to a large number of pharmaceutical manufacturing industries. Saki Lake is situated very close to the Patancheru.

Prominent educational institutions in the area are GITAM University Hyderabad Campus and Jyothi Engineering College. Major landmarks are Tomb of Amin Khan (16th century), Mosque (1912), Gram Panchayat (established in 1955 which is now under the GHMC), Industrial Estate (1962), ICRISAT (1972). It is 35 km from Secunderabad railway station and 50 km away from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

History

According to locals, during the Nizam era, Afgan Patans used to stay near Saki Lake and subsequently it has become as Patan Cheruvu now popularly known as Patancheru. A government hospital was constructed in 10 acres of land on the garden and farm house of Nawab Meer Osman Ali Khan who used to spend his holidays there.

In 1912 he constructed a mosque. In 1951 a rural health center was established. There is a beautiful well at the entrance of the mosque. Locals claim that this well has never dried up in the past century. Patancheru was also the headquarters of Bidar and Gulshanabad revenue divisions and has a number of temples built between the 12th & 15th centuries.

Patnacheru Tomb is the mausoleum of Amin Khan, a late 16th-century feudatory of the Qutb Shahis who ruled in the area, about 20 km from Golconda. The massive tomb built in the Qutb Shahi idiom is raised on a spacious square platform in onion-shaped dome and is raised on a high cylindrical drum, crowned by a row of fully-modeled petals. A smaller more derelict tomb stands nearby.

The Industrial Estate was established in 1962 and is spread over 56 acres with 67 plots and 34 sheds. Now there are more than 500 small, medium and large scale industries in the area which is spread over 1,137 acres where more than 3,000 people are employed. Major industries include Asian Paints, Aurobindo Pharma, Fenner, Rotec Transmissions, Velezan etc.

Problems

Thakur Rajkumar Singh, an activist of Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), says, “The Ammenapur Lake (Pedda Cheruvu) and its 12 water bodies are subjected to rampant unlawful constructions. The emergence of industries and other residual encroachments in the lake beds in the buffer zones has defeated the primary purpose of irrigation and biodiversity due to release of pollutants of industrial and domestic sewage.”

Irrigation minister T Harish Rao announced recently that the Ammenapur Lake would be developed as a mini tank bund at an approximate cost of Rs 3 crore and promised to protect the water bodies from land sharks.

By:Ch Saibaba