Nampally A garden which flourished as a business centre

Nampally is one of the biggest and busiest business centres of Hyderabad. The biggest landmark is the Hyderabad Deccan Railway Station, popularly known as Nampally Railway Station, which is also a gateway to Hyderabad city.

Nampally is a commercial region with various business centres, new and old furniture shops, public and private sector banks and leading hotels like Royal Grand (which was established in 1958). The place houses a popular exhibition ground where the annual Numaish (industrial exhibition) is held. It is also known as All India Industrial Exhibition and is conducted every year in the month of January and February. Numaish Masnuaat-e-Mulki, meaning ‘exhibition of local products’, was started in 1938 by a group of graduates from Osmania University to showcase local products during the reign of the last Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan.

Nampally is dotted with numerous landmarks such as Ek-Minar Masjid, AP State Archaeology Museum, Jubilee Hall, Lalitha Kala Thoranam (a centre for performing arts), Asif Tennis Club, Metropolitan Criminal Court and Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Care Hospital, Traffic Police Station. Places worth visiting here are Health Museum; State Archaeological Museum; Public Garden (built in 1846 by last Nizam), which is the oldest park in Hyderabad; Dargah Yousufain and Moazzam Jahi Market which is a famous flower market.

History

The Nampally Railway Station also called Hyderabad Railway Station was built in 1907 by Asaf Jah VII Osman Ali Khan. The station was called Nam-pally because it was built in a moist and wet area in those days. ‘Nam’ in Urdu means ‘wet and moist' and ‘pally’ means ‘place’. It is due to the wetness of the place that the Nizam also chose to build Bagh-e-Aam (popularly known as Public Gardens) in the same area, knowing that a garden would flourish in a wet place.

The Hyderabad Railway Station was simultaneously built with Bagh-e-Aam. This station was used mostly as a goods siding. While the Secunderabad Railway Station saw its first train on October 9, 1874, when the Wadi-Secunderabad line was commissioned, the Hyderabad Railway Statio had to wait till 1921 before the first passenger train came chugging in. The delay was because the Begumpet Railway Station was being constructed. It was discovered that the railway line passed through the property of Sir Vicar-ul-Umra and it was only when he insisted that the trains stop at Begumpet, did he grant permission for full construction of the Begumpet Railway Station. Once it was resolved, trains began plying between Secunderabad and Hyderabad - passing through either the Hussain Sagar Junction or Begumpet Railway Station.

As of today, it has emerged as one of the busiest railway stations with many express and superfast trains terminating or originating from here, including the Andhra Pradesh Express - the first Superfast train of South Central Railways that runs between Hyderabad and New Delhi - and the immensely popular Godavari Express and Hussainsagar Express and many more.

Railway Board director KP Yadav and members from the ministry of railways and ministry of tourism visited the Nampally Railway Station last week and planned to make a smart, world-class railway station with modern facilities and infrastructure on the lines of international airports with an estimated expenditure of Rs 13 crore. In this project, they will relocate the existing power sub-station located in front the station to make a full view of the station and to clear passage.

“Daily 108 trains will start and arrive carrying 44,000 passengers, with a daily earnings of 52 lakh,” said KP Yadav. K Sambasiva Rao, spokesperson from the SCR, added, “The historic Nampally Railway Station was identified as tourist railway station, along with 24 other stations all over India.”

Problems

M Sandeep Reddy, Station House Officer (SHO), Traffic Police Station, Nampally, said, “The roads between Ek-Minar and Bazaarghat need to be widened, as the traffic in the peak hours flows into a bottleneck due to narrow roads and illegal occupation of footpaths by vendors. It is posing a big problem. Road users need to strictly follow traffic rules and violators should be dealt strictly by amending the police rules and laws.”