Govt advisor claims KBR will not be touched

Hyderabad: In a fierce attempt to allay the fears of Hyderabadis, B V Papa Rao, advisor to the Telangana government, on Friday, claimed that the strategic road development plan (SRDP), when implemented, will not touch the KBR National Park.
Speaking to a packed audience at the Sultan-ul-Uloom Education Society during a Manthan-organised session titled `SRDP & KBR Park: Facts and Issues', Papa Rao said, “We are not touching the KBR Park.The SRDP project will not destroy the KBR Park.In fact, after completion of the project, the jogging track will simply be realigned by 250-300 metres and its length will increase from 4km to 5.3 km.“
The arguments, however, failed to impress most members of the audience ­ comprising civil society representatives, environmentalists, urban planners, politicians and common public ­ who threw a vol ley of questions at the government official insisting on more “clarity“ on the project that proposes to build six flyovers around the 390-acre-large national park and axe over 3,000 trees.
“All these presentations and video flowcharts should have been announced and made public before the implementation of the project or breaking the wall of the KBR Park.This public outcry is a result of the government's failure to involve the people in the work and, instead, take unilateral decisions,“ rued BJP spokesperson, Krishna Saagar Rao.
Even Papa Rao's reiteration about safeguarding the KBR, did not convince many. “It is almost like telling us that we will not touch your house, but will pull down the entire compound wall around it. Or, we will not touch your house but the moment you step out you will hit by a flyover! How is that even a solution?“ asked Shilpa Sivakuraman of Hyderabad Rising, hitting out at the government for deciding to shrink the ecosensitive zone (ESZ) of the park from the earlier proposed 25-35 meters to three to seven meters.
While the advisor to the state government tried hard to make light of the ESZ matter by claiming that KBR was not a “wildlife sanctuary like the Kaziranga National Park to have a ESZ“ and even going a step ahead to argue how the green space was simply notified as a national park to “protect it from land sharks and for political reasons“, his argument didn't find many takers.
Among those opposing it was former union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah who, politely yet strongly told the speaker and the audience how the ESZ rule did apply to KBR too, as it was a national park.“Also, irrespective of the reasons as to why it was made a national park, the fact remains that it has that status now and hence needs to be preserved,“ he stressed.
On the traffic congestion issue too Papa Rao found himself battling a barrage of uncomfortable queries with architect Shankar Narayan questioning the necessity of the project before the metro rail's arrival.“Why can't we wait for three years to see how the metro rail helps decongest traffic on that stretch? We can discuss this project after that,“ he said.
Kingshuk Nag, Resident Editor of The Times of India, Hyderabad, too made a similar point in his presentation earlier in the evening while justifying the need to save the green body. “The KBR Park, in addition to being a unique ecological system, is an important water and carbon sink that cannot be duplicated elsewhere. If the circumference of the park is reduced, the park will be destroyed. Even reports produced by consultants must not be blindly accepted. There should be a healthy debate and discussion about the same,“ he said.