Hyderabad: Fruit market may be shifted to Victoria Playgrounds temporarily

Hyderabad: Giving respite to a large number of fruit traders and workers of the Gaddiannaram fruit market, the State government has decided to identify space to run the fruit market temporarily till all facilities are at place in Batasingaram where the market is to be shifted.

On Sunday, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy and Home Minister Mahamood Ali, along with the senior officials of the Marketing department and MIM MLAs met, following the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to discuss the issue.

It can be recalled that the State government had proposed to shift the Gaddiannaram market to Batasingaram to make space for the construction of a super-speciality hospital on the lines of Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences to cater to the growing medical needs in the times of Covid.

However, during the just-concluded Assembly session, MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi had urged the Chief Minister to review the government's decision to shift the fruit market to Batasingaram, which is over 30 km away from the present market at Kothapet and which lacks basic amenities.

Niranjan Reddy said that the Chief Minister had directed them to explore the feasibility in response to the request made by the MIM leader.

The two Ministers along with the MIM MLAs discussed the issue at the meeting, in which, the MLAs urged the Ministers to temporarily run the fruit market at Victory Playgrounds in Kothapet. However, the marketing officials briefed the Ministers that they have created all necessary facilities at Batasingaram and proposed to temporarily run the fruit market at Batasingaram until creating all amenities at Koheda, where it would be shifted finally.

Following this, the Ministers decided to go for a field inspection of the Victoria Playgrounds and two spaces located in the Logistics Park in Batasingaram to temporarily shift the fruit market.

The Ministers along with Education Minister Sabita Indra Reddy will take a final call after vising the three places, officials concerned said.