KTR eyes Tourism Department portfolio in the next BRS Government

Hyderabad: BRS Working president KT Rama Rao on Friday said that what BRS delivered in six and a half years, Congress couldn’t in six decades.

Speaking at a session organized by the Business Network International (BNI) in the city, Rama Rao appealed to the people to compare the performance of the BRS government with that of the Congress, which ruled for about 65 years. “What BRS could deliver in six and a half years, Congress couldn’t in six decades,” he said.

Rama Rao said that prominent personalities like Super Star Rajinikanth and BJP MP Sunny Deol could see the transformation of Hyderabad but the opposition Gajinis were turning a blind eye to Hyderabad’s development.

Rao highlighted that there was a severe power and water crisis in the State during the Congress rule. He stated that over the past nine and a half years, under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana witnessed an unprecedented transformation across multiple domains.

Speaking about his plans for the State, Rao said, “Telangana government’s focus would be on developing social infrastructure, sporting infrastructure, education and skilling, healthcare, and nurturing entrepreneurship in the next term.”

He further said that there was a lot of tourism potential especially after many reservoirs were constructed in different areas. He added that the covid pandemic badly affected the service sector and things were getting back on track as people were willing to spend by taking their friends and family out. He appealed to young entrepreneurs to explore new avenues like religious tourism, medical tourism, spiritual tourism, health, sports, and wilderness tourism. “If BRS is voted to power, I will appeal to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to allot me the Tourism department. This is one sector, which offers a lot of potential,” Rao said.

The best thing about this sector was that the government's investment would be minimal and many projects could be executed under public-private partnership mode, he said.

Citing the example of a 23-km exclusive cycling track on ORR, KTR said much more was to come up. Gandipet and Himayat Sagar could be developed without being polluted and more weekend avenues have to be developed around Hyderabad, he said.

Explaining the measures taken by the BRS government to support the small and medium enterprises, he said the Industrial Health Clinic was set up to help sick units bail out from stress. This was one of its kind entities in the nation. The agenda was to work with the management during the incipient stage and conduct a techno-economic study, besides working with banks on restructuring loans, he said.

Rao stated that the first compliment investors or those coming into the city after a long time would give were about road infrastructure and sanitation. He recalled the words of Foxconn Chairman Young Liu where the latter during his meeting with CM KCR had asked what was the Telangana Government. doing which has transformed Hyderabad city and it does not feel like India.

Briefing about the five revolutions the State was witnessing, the BRS working president said due to a substantial rise in agriculture production, special food processing zones were being set up in 16 locations.