GHMC chops down a lush HUDA park for road

Seeing red over the green destruction, the residents of HUDA Enclave are planning to move court against the civic authority

Hyderabad: Residents of HUDA Enclave are to file petition against the civic authority for cutting down hundreds of trees for construction of a road in Prashasan Nagar in Jubilee Hills.

Their reaction comes after hundreds of trees from Huda Park area are being uprooted for the five days by the civic authorities for construction of road to reduce traffic congestion towards Jubilee Hills. This road will help commuters from Journalist Colony reach Narne Road via HUDA Enclave. Residents of HUDA Enclave say that the road construction area was shown as a park land in the HUDA layout and the government should have interacted with residents before destroying the greenery of the colony.

"We are approaching the court against GHMC. They have devastated the entire park now; 90% of it is already gone. Hundreds of trees were uprooted in a span of a few days without any mercy. Officials say they are not going to stop the ongoing works. Hence, we decided to take it legally," said Phani Kondepudi, treasurer of HUDA Enclave RWA.

Public convenience cannot be a pretext for destroying environment like public parks. Parks have been created by the government, saying that they are mandatory for layouts and every community is asked to set aside 10% of land for greenery. Ravinder, a GHMC Town Planning official, said that the road was being laid from Journalist Colony up to Narne Road via HUDA Enclave to facilitate traffic towards Jubilee Hills Checkpost. Ongoing works cannot be stopped and the decision rests in the hands of GHMC Commissioner and the Government of Telangana, he clarified.