Hyderabad: City turns into green valley under Haritha Haram

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has created a Green Corridor by taking up intensive plantation along Outer Ring Road (158 KM), Interchanges (457.23 acres), Service Road, Railway Corridors etc by planting 71.15 lakhs seedlings.

The HMDA has been planting 450 lakh seedlings under 'Telangana ku Haritha Haram' with Rs 298.09 crore during 2022-23. According to officials, the drip irrigation has been developed on ORR for watering the greenery. The drip works on Scada Software based Automation.

On comparison with manual watering, drip irrigation on ORR saves the amount Rs 5.09 crore per year and 6.09 lakhs liters water per day protected and developed greenery as Urban Lung Spaces in (16) Forest Blocks to an extent area of 14708.24 acres located in HMDA jurisdiction with cost of 11,662.73 lakhs. Out of 16 Reserve Forest parks, six parks were opened to the general public.

The authorities developed Central Median Multi-Layer Avenue plantations (672.5 kms) and Avenue plantations (269.8 kms) along National Highways, State Highways, R&B roads, and HMDA Roads in HMDA Jurisdiction. During the 2022-23 season, the government have given a planting and nursery target of 500 lakhs to HMDA. The nursery has been raised in 42 nurseries located in different locations and is being utilised for the TKHH programme -2022.

Tellapur nursery of HMDA is one of the best nurseries in the state. Greenery has been developed in (14) lakes in HMDA jurisdiction and made available to the public to use as a Recreation plan. Maintained 39 Urban parks including NTR Garden, Sanjeevaiah Park, and Necklace Road as Urban Lung Spaces in Hyderabad City.

Tree City Award is given by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Arbor Day Foundation. This is the second time Hyderabad received the Tree City Award 1st award was received for the year 2020 and 2nd award was received for the year 2021. Hyderabad has topped the megacities that gained maximum green cover with 48.66 sq km in a decade in the country as per the report of Forest Survey of India 2021, the officials said.