HYDERABAD: Come Bathukamma festival and people moving on the nearly 2.5-km-long Necklace Road can enjoy the beauty of blooming flowers all along the railway track.
The urban forestry wing of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is developing ‘Bathukamma Trails’ at a cost of around Rs 50 lakh.
HMDA officials told Express that some 10 to 15 varieties of flowers used for making Bathukamma which are seasonal flowers in nature like Gunuka (Celosia), Tangedu (Tanner’s Cassia), Banti (Marigold), Chamanti (Chrysanthemum), Senna, Ipomoea, Katla, Teku flowers, hibiscus, stick bush, jasmine which bloom in this season in various vibrant colours all across the uncultivated and barren lands will be planted along the stretch.
Apart from these seasonal flowers, another 15 to 20 varieties of flowers like roses, ixora, lilies, bougainvillea, begonia, dahlia, heliconia, hibiscus, lantana. orchids, pssiflora, petunia, plumeria and other flowering plants will also be planted.
Work is going apace and efforts are being made to complete around 60 pc work, ie from Necklace Road railway station to Jal Vihar. The remaining work from Jal Vihar to PV Ghat will be completed once the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) completes laying of sewerage pipelines to divert sewage and industrial water to the downstream Hussainsagar surplus nala.
HMWS&SB is laying huge-size sewerage pipelines to divert the industrial waste coming from Kukatpally nala to the downstream of Hussainsagar surplus nala. At present, the untreated water and waste is being let into the Hussainsagar lake.