Warangal’s Hriday beats slowly

Warangal: National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Centre’s ambitious project aimed at holistic development of heritage cities, that promised to revitalise the soul of Warangal’s unique sculptural elegance is going on slowly even after two years of its launch. Barring the completion of one, the execution of other five projects is running behind schedule.

Warangal, the second largest city in Telangana, was one among a dozen heritage cities chosen under the HRIDAY project at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore in August 2015.

The Rs 14.94-crore Bhadrakali Lake Foreshore development and Rs 15.30-crore Revival and Development of Fort Warangal are the two major projects among the six proposed by the authorities.

The other projects are – Rs 94-lakh 1000 pillars temple area development work; Rs 1.78-crore Kazipet Dargah development work; Rs 73-lakh Padmakshi Temple pond rejuvenation; and Rs 1.30-crore development of Jain Sites of Hanamkonda hillock.

The dashboard of the Centre’s www.hridayindia.in site revealed that the executing agency, Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA), has attained 37 per cent physical completion on an overall basis. The only significant development is that KUDA was able to complete the works of Kazipet Dargah.

The latest information obtained from the KUDA suggests that 65 per cent work on the most-awaited Bhadrakali lake foreshore development was completed. Its components include development of foreshore road, street lights, parking, promenade and landscaping.

So far, the authorities completed 70 per cent of Padmakshi temple pond rejuvenation work and 65 per cent of Jain sites development work. The development of 1000 pillars temple is appallingly way behind with 75 per cent works still remaining. With just 25 per cent of work done, the development of 1000 pillars temple area is also lagging behind.

The work on Fort Warangal development appears to be a cause of concern for the authorities as they have to complete 95 per cent of work. The components of Fort Warangal development are revival of the moat surrounding fort wall, stabilisation of rock fortress, redesigning the entrances, provision of public infrastructure in the monuments and desilting, resetting of fallen stones of Sringara Bavi (well).

The Central team led by Sumit Gakhar, HRIDAY project Under Secretary, which inspected the Fort Warangal on Friday is visibly unhappy with the slow pace of works.

Speaking to The Hans India, KUDA Executive Engineer Bheem Rao said: “The Fort Warangal works got delayed due to various reasons such as land acquisition and a proposed change in the detailed project report (DPR).

However, the Central team directed us to carry the works in accordance with the approved DPR.”  Although the Central team told the KUDA to complete the works by October-end, it’s very much unlikely to happen.