Rs 1,500 crore allocated in Telangana budget for Musi Riverfront development

Hyderabad, March 20 (IANS) The government of Telangana has allocated Rs.1,500 crore in the state budget for Musi Riverfront development, the pet project of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
Presenting the budget for 2026-27 in the state Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka stated that the government was taking up a major development plan for the rejuvenation of the Musi River over a stretch of 55 km.
In the first phase, this project will extend from Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar up to Gandhi Sarovar. As part of the Musi rejuvenation, 2.5 TMC of water will be supplied to the Musi through the Godavari Project, he said.
At the confluence of the Esa and Musi rivers, the government is developing the prestigious Gandhi Sarovar project. This includes river cleaning, flood control, riverfront development, and creation of recreational facilities for the public.
He assured that the government will provide rehabilitation to people living in the Musi river buffer zone from a humane perspective, without causing them any hardship.
The finance minister revealed that the government has sanctioned works worth about Rs 43,592.88 crore through various agencies for the development of Hyderabad and surrounding areas. Of these, works worth Rs 24,752 crore have already commenced. The rest will be taken up soon.
An allocation of Rs 2,654 crore has been made for infrastructure development in Hyderabad under Hyderabad city Innovative and Transformative Infrastructure (H-CITI) scheme.
Vikramarka also earmarked Rs 600 crore for second phase of Hyderabad Metro Rail.
He noted Hyderabad Metro Rail is currently serving about 5 lakh passengers a day. The government has prepared a plan to extend this facility to the Old City and to expand the network with new corridors under Metro Phase II.
“The decision of the Telangana government to take over the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project, which is the lifeline of Hyderabad city, from L&T is a bold and people-friendly decision in the history of transport in the State. In the rapidly expanding city of Hyderabad, metro expansion to the Old City, Shamshabad Airport, and areas beyond Hitec City has become an urgent necessity under Phase II and Phase III,” he said.
The finance minister stated that the government is developing the state by giving priority to the service sector in CURE, the manufacturing sector in PURE, and agriculture and allied sectors in RARE.
Within the Hyderabad Outer Ring Road (ORR), in the CURE (Core Urban Region Economy), the government decided to develop technology, artificial intelligence, global capability centres, research, development startups, financial services institutions, and other service sectors as a high-value services hub.
The government has set a goal to develop the area between the ORR and the Regional Ring Road (RRR) as a manufacturing hub. Steps will be taken to establish manufacturing industries, MSME clusters, logistics hubs, and industrial parks in this region. “This will lead to large-scale employment generation in particular. This region is going to become the manufacturing engine of Telangana’s economy,” he said.
The finance minister said the areas beyond the Regional Ring Road into an agriculture value-added economy. Special emphasis will be given to food processing industries, value-based agriculture, and eco-tourism.
He stated that Telangana is taking another historic step, namely the establishment of “Bharat Future City” over 30,000 acres. With the construction of radial roads, a greenfield national highway directly connecting Future City to Machilipatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh, underground power systems, and eco-friendly smart grids, this city will stand as a model of sustainable development, he said.
–IANS
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