HYDERABAD: Setting a bold 10-year deadline for Bharat Future City to emerge as a hub of Fortune 500 companies, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said, “Give me 10 years, I will develop Bharat Future City on the lines of New York.”
He added that the Union government had also agreed to develop a bullet train network from Future City to Chennai via Amaravati. Revanth was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the Future City Development Authority (FCDA) office at Mirkhanpet and Ratan Tata Greenfield Highway (a radial road).
Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said the state government’s vision was to position Future City as a global destination for investments and opportunities. “The Future City will be a world-class destination for investments. The government has prepared ambitious plans to make it a great city. Let us develop it in such a way that top cities across the world take note of it,” he added.
The Future City, expected to span 15,000 acres (765 sq km), will be connected by the 41-km Ratan Tata Greenfield Highway, a Rs 4,621 crore project passing through 14 villages.
Appealing to people not to fall prey to the opposition’s “false propaganda”, he said: “Some are hatching conspiracies and alleging that I own land at the proposed Future City. Political opponents are levelling baseless allegations. I am not thinking about myself or my Cabinet colleagues, but about future generations.”
Assuring that the government would pay fair compensation to people losing land to the project, he sought public cooperation and urged them not to approach the courts. “The government is proactive and ready to resolve grievances generously through dialogue,” he added.
Pointing out that Telangana is a landlocked state, the chief minister announced plans to build a dry port along the 12-lane greenfield highway between Machilipatnam and Future City, with integration into Amaravati. An underground power line network is also proposed for the new city.
‘Asked mins to work for 4 days a month from FCDA’
“The FCDA office will be inaugurated in December. I will come here and work three days a month, inviting investors to the FCDA office instead of the Secretariat. I have asked Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu to function from here four days a month,” he said.
The chief minister also asked officials to allot 10 acres for the construction of a global office for the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
Recalling the city’s past, he said: “Quli Qutub Shah laid the foundation for Hyderabad,
the Nizam developed Secunderabad 220 years ago, and former chief ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy developed Cyberabad.”
Vikramarka, Sridhar Babu and other leaders also took part in the programme.