Over 100 trees felled in HUDA enclave to lay road, residents accuse GHMC of encroachment

Hyderabad: The residents of HUDA enclave woke up on the morning of 27 April to see that around 100 trees in an area inside their layout had been felled to make way for a road. Residents complained that the area had been allotted to construct a park but is now being used to build a road from Journalist Road to Narne Road.

HUDA enclave in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, had dedicated a piece of land to build a park inside the layout which was part of the master plan that the residents were shown before buying a plot there.

Phani Kondedudi, the treasurer of Huda Enclave Residents' Welfare Association, said, “This land is to be converted into a park for our community. Taking over land inside the park is wrong. On the night of 26 April, they suddenly broke the boundary walls and chopped off over a hundred trees.”

Phani said the Andhra Pradesh government had auctioned the HUDA enclave land and during the time an open area had been dedicated for a garden because as per guidelines 10 per cent of the area had to be allotted for parks. As per those guidelines, the land cannot be taken over for road construction. Phani said, “When we spoke to the officials on Monday morning, they said they have the contract to go ahead with building a road here and they didn’t listen to us when we asked them to stop.”

Juhee Ahmed, another resident, said, “The road construction has been going on for the past five days but today they suddenly demolished the boundary walls of the park. According to the guidelines, the land allotted for the park cannot be used to build a road. The area had trees and small saplings. They initially said they will use up to 20 feet but almost 100 feet of the park has been used. We are holding discussions with other community members to develop the area as a park. We are not against the construction of the road but against the encroachment of the park." Juhee also said that they have spoken to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials.

Mr K. Ravinder, the supervisor at GHMC's town planning department, said, “It is GHMC land and we needed it to construct a road. That’s why we demolished the walls. Only 20 to 30 feet of the land will be used for the 60-feet road. Our senior officials also inspected the area and found no issues.”