HYDERABAD: Pavuralagutta in the Nallamala jungles in Kurnool district will become a new tourist destination with the State Government deciding to develop a memorial park (Smriti Vanam) in an area of 1,412 hectares at Nallakaluva village with an impsoing memorial column to perpetuate the memory of YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
There will be a 5-km-long trekking path from Smrithi Vanam to the site where the former chief minister’s helicopter crashed on September 2, an animal breeding centre and a nature study centre. The entire project will cost Rs 3.15 crore.
The State Cabinet, which met today, cleared a proposal put forth by the forest department to this effect. ``The chief minister wanted that it should be befitting to the stature of Rajasekhara Redy and funds should not be a constraint,’’ Information and Public Relations Minister J Geetha Reddy said while briefing mediapersons on the decisions taken by the Cabinet.
Though a decision had been taken at a Cabinet meeting held soon after YSR’s death to erect a memorial column at the helicotper crash site, the finer details were worked out only today. The forest department promised the government that it would obtain all necessary permissions from the Centre since the land to be acquired was in a reserve forest area.
The Smriti Vanam will come up at Nallakalva village where, at the main entrance of the park, a huge memorial column will be built with an investment of up to Rs 30 lakh and the area will be landscaped. The nature study centre will entail an investment of up to Rs 50 lakh and the animal breeding centre another Rs 50 lakh. ``The animal breeding centre was, in fact, the desire of Rajasekhara Reddy and the Cabinet decided to translate it into reality,’’ Geetha Reddy said.
As the government wants the project to be unique, the services of international consultants will be requisitioned.
``At today’s meeting we spent most of the time on the way the project should shape up,’’ Geetha Reddy said.
The Cabinet also decided to have another memorial park in Hyderabad and a Cabinet sub-committee with the ministers of revenue, home, municipal administration, tourism, health and BC welfare will oversee the work. Health and BC welfare ministers have been included in the committee since they hail hail from Hyderabad.
``We are scouting for a good location in the State capital for building the memorial park,’’ Geetha Reddy said, adding that it would be executed on a war-footing so that the memorial parks would be ready by the first death anniversary of Rajasekhara Reddy.
