Hyderabad: Telangana’s government has decided to shift the well-known TB or Chest Hospital of Erragadda to Vikarabad town of Ranga Reddy, on the outskirts of Hyderabad amid speculation that it wants to utilise the vast lands of hospital to develop permanent Parade Grounds.
A formal government order was issued on Tuesday.
The idea came up after the historic Golconda Fort was found unsatisfactory for conducting the ceremonial parade on the occasion of Independence Day forcing the state government to revert to the old venue of Secunderabad Parade Grounds of Defence Department for the Republic Day parade.
But Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was not fully satisfied with this arrangement.
“Chief Minister is keen to develop the land of TB and mental hospitals at Erragadda as permanent Parade Ground of the state government”, a highly placed source said.
The chief minister had recently visited both hospitals and expressed dissatisfaction over congestion and pollution there.
Consequently the state government decided to release an amount of Rs75 million (Dh4.5 million) to develop TB Hospital at Vikarabad. A TB Sanitorium was built by the Nizam government at Vikarabad, 70km away from Hyderabad. The same place will now be developed into a major hospital and Erragadda hospital will be relocated there. Similarly the mental hospital will also be shifted.
This move will make 110 acres of land in Hyderabad city available for developing Parade Ground. However, some parts of the land will have to be cleared of encroachments.
KCR’s government has also proposed shifting some other old institutions including Chanchalguda Central Jail and Racecourse from Malakpet both in the congested parts of the old city.
This will not only unlock huge tracts of lands but also help in decongesting both the areas paving the way for development plans.
