Dearth of planners hits KCR’s urban uplift plan

Hyderabad: While Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dreams of developing urban areas in the state on par with New York, London, and San Francisco, he fails to take into account the dearth of planning experts in the Directorate of Town and Country Planning department. While about 3.5 crore people reside in urban areas, including six corporations and 142 municipalities, not even 20 per cent of the qualified planners have completed M. Tech planning in the state to design happy, healthy and hassle free living. Due to apathy of successive governments in recruiting qualified urban planners, a city like Hyderabad is in dire need of an Urban Redevelopment Plan, designed to help the city create public and private partnerships to encourage redevelopment and revitalisation within defined areas of the city. However, sources said if the state government wakes up and recruits qualified urban planners, 142 municipalities and five corporations including Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Ramagundam could be saved from the present scattered and unsatisfactory development. Mr K. Srinivas Rao, chairman of the Institute of Town Planners India, Telangana chapter, said that despite recruiting qualified urban planners, the government should also put its policies pertaining to urban planning in the public domain.