HYDERABAD: The entire parking lot of Lumbini Park, Telangana Tourism Office, few sections of HMDA and HCIP Division offices and a power substation are likely to be wiped out to make way for the proposed Telangana Martyrs Memorial (Amaraveerula Smruthi Vanam).
The memorial, costing around Rs 80 crore, will now come up in about 3.29 acres as against the previously planned 12 acres in 2016 which covered the entire Lumbini Park, Lumbini Laserium, BPA office and Hyderabad Boats Club, which have been now dropped to save the Lumbini park and the Laserium.
However, even with this new proposal, parking space — or the lack of it — would be a concern as few hundred two-wheelers, large number of four-wheelers and over a dozen buses which bring tourists to the Park and the Laserium, would not have adequate parking space. Also, once the project is completed and opened for the public, situation might turn chaotic as there are all the likelihoods that people from across the state would visit the memorial.
To come up in 3.29 acres
Meanwhile, the Transport Roads and Buildings Department (TR&B) has asked the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for handing over the land at the earliest. The extent of the land is 15,930 sq.yds with a setback of six metre from the Laser show building.
The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) department had on September 25, 2017, issued orders asking HMDA commissioner to hand over the requisite land at the Lumbini Park. However, the ownership of the land will lie with HMDA and the memorial will be maintained by the authority after the execution of the project. The HMDA would hand over the required land to the TR&B department after conducting panchanama and other due procedures for the construction of the memorial.
Remembring the Telangana martyrs
The memorial is being built for Telangana martyr’s who laid down their lives for a separate Telangana State. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had laid the foundation stone for the structure on June 2, 2016. The park around the memorial would exhibit the spirit of the martyr’s and the Telangana movement.