HMDA Park set to get a fresh lease of life

Rajendranagar: After much delay, the Urban Forestry Wing at HMDA Park in Shivarampally has finally kick-started the works to promote tree park, along with the walking track. According to officials who visited the neglected site, the delay was caused due to some other imperative commitments during the rainy season.

The issue of abandoned HMDA Park was raised by The Hans India in June and again on October 26 in the report, 'Fate of HMDA Park hangs in the air -- Prime land becomes vulnerable to encroachment' after the suspicious delay in commencing of works to reinvigorate the park from its past glory.

"Nothing has constrained us from making this project take a complete shape. We have already informed the engineering wing of HMDA to reconstruct the broken parts of the compound wall, which has developed sizeable breaches from three locations. At the same time, we have employed workers to cut the shrubs and bushes inside the park to help us scale the length and width of the area to be raised as the tree park," said Srinath Reddy, Forest Manager at Department of Urban Forestry.

"We have already got the approval from the department for this project, and we are finally getting ready to complete it without any further delay. According to an estimate, Rs 5 lakh will be spent to reinvigorate the Tree Park, along with its walking track. The entire work will be completed in one month," said I Prakash, District Forest Officer (DFO) at Department of Urban Forestry HMDA.

It may not be out of place to mention here that the HMDA Park that stands on the dried portion of the historic Bum-Ruknud-Dowla Lake at Shivrampally has turned vacant land after the nursery, which was run here till recently, was shifted to some other place.

The officials of Urban Forestry Wing of GHMC were unaware of the park for years, owing to its location tucked away close to National Highway 44 on the city outskirts. With the report published in The Hans India on June 18, the isolated park in neglected state wearing a deserted look caught the attention of the officials.