Kompally: Not just dhabas and gardens

Kompally is one of the fastest growing suburbs located in Qutubullapur mandal of the Ranga Reddy district. Before the residential boom and formation of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), it was a small village on the outskirts of Hyderabad with grape gardens, farm houses, horticulture and was flooded with poultry farms. Chekuri Suryanarayana Raju and late Byrraju Satyanarayana Raju started the Grape Gardens in the 1960s. Satyanarayana was the founder chairman of Satyam Group of Companies.

Now most of the gardens have vanished and have turned into layouts. Many colonies and multi-storey complexes have been developed which include Prajay Jamuna Gruhatara Apartments, NCL North Avenue, Satyam Enclave, BHEL R&D Co-Op Society, Laxmi Ganga Enclave, Palm Springs, NCL Colony, Meenakshi Estates, Palm Meadows, Maa Laxmi Residency Nagarjuna Dreamlands, Vitisvilla, Shanthiniketan, Ashoka-Ala-Maison and Vitis Villa.

History

According to locals, Kompally was named after Kohanuddin, who was the Jagirdhar of the village during the Nizam’s rule. During the course of time, Kohanuddin became popularly known as KhomPally.

Sreenivas, a gram panchyat employee in Kompally, said, “‘Mooga Manasulu’, a 1964 Telugu film starring A Nageswar Rao and Savithri as protagonists, was shot in a haunted building adjacent to the Fox Sagar Lake. ANR used to visit the Annapurna Gardens in Kompally in those days when he spotted the old building which was haunted. Now the building has been razed and the Shiva Shivani Institute has come up in its place. The Annapurna Gardens too was sold to someone but the main entrance gate still exists which reminds us of the past glory.”

Landmarks

The main approach to Kompally is through the Medchal four-lane highway to Nagpur. It has landmarks like Cine Planet, Prajay Apartments, Runway-9, Satyam Quarters, Apparel Export Park, EMRI and Dhola-Ri-Dhani. The Outer Ring Road is 3 kilometres away at Kandlakoya. The famous Basara Saraswathi temple is a four-and-a-half hour drive from here.

Several schools and engineering colleges are located in and around Kompally including St Ann's High School, Petbasherabad; Suchitra Academy, Unicent School, DRS International School, Neeraj Public School, Sadhu Vaswani School, Sherwood Public School, Malla Reddy Group of Institutions and SP Sampathy's Siva Sivani Educational Institution. There are many hospital too including Sri Sigma Hospital, Swarupa Multi Specialty Hospital, Balaji Hospital, RR Hospital, Harsha Hospital, Konark Hospital and Rush Hospital. RD Convention Center, Surya Convention Centre, Excellency Gardens, AMR Gardens, Chandra Reddy Gardens, Sri Venkateshwara Gardens, Hyndava Nimantran Function Hall, SNR Gardens, Siddh Convention, KVR Gardens are prominent too. The famous dhabas and hangouts in Kompally include Deewan Dhaba, Deewan Amusement Center, Zee Dhaba, Chandini Dhaba and Taj Dhaba.

Problems

Majority of the residents complain that cell phone signals in the area are weak. They blame the companies for not coming forward to install the towers. According to locals, the companies claimed that it was not feasible. They also complained that the Metro Rail Project not being extended to Kompally and the surrounding areas is a great disadvantage to them.