After Future City, Revanth Reddy ideates Warangal-Karimnagar twin cities

After ideating and making a concerted effort to create a fourth city, off the State Capital, Hyderabad, between the Srisailam Highway and Nagarjuna Sagar Highway, christened as ‘Bharat Future City’, which will have multiple conglomerates for sports, education, research, pharma, etc, the Chief Minister unveiled a vision for creating Warangal-Karimnagar urban corridor.

Reddy said on Thursday that the two cities of Warangal and Karimnagar would be joined by aligning and building expanded Outer Ring Roads (ORR) for the two cities. He proposed to create another set of twin cities in the State.

Hyderabads and Secunderabad won the acclaim of being the twin cities in India from time immemorial.

Eventually, Cyberabad evolved over the last two decades with special focus on IT, ITeS, and allied activities. This was complemented by the creation of Financial District and the icing on the cake are the Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that adorned this newest city.

As soon as he took over the reins of the State, he began toying with the idea of Bharat Future City in line with his government’s vision of Telangana Rising 2047, on a par with Viksit Bharat 2047 vision taken by the Union Government.

Soon enough, the government machinery was pressed into action to identify and set up sports city, green pharma city, etc with land acquisition and land pooling for accommodating latest facilities and creating radial roads between the ORR of Hyderabad and the proposed Regional Ring Road.

The CM proposed the trifurcation of Telangana into three economic regions - Core Urban Region Economy (CURE), Peri Urban Region Economy (PURE) and Rural Agricultural Region Economy (RARE). While CURE is a net zero services-only region in core Hyderabad within the perimeter of ORR, the region between ORR and RRR would the PURE with focus on manufacturing, and the outside of RRR would be RARE with emphasis on agriculture and allied activities.

This vision was unveiled at the recent Telangana Rising Global Summit in December last.

These would be part of the economic goals of making Telangana a $ 1 trillion economy by 2035 and $ 3 trillion by 2047 - to contribute 10 percent of Indian economy of $ 30 trillion, targeted for 2047.

With a view to bolstering the economy of major tier-2 cities and bringing about the urbane vibrancy in the State, Revanth Reddy proposed creating another set of twin cities in the State.

As part of a major urban development thrust, Warangal and Karimnagar would be developed into twin urban centres connected by enhanced infrastructure development and accurate planning.

Revanth Reddy said he envisioned this stretch to be a model urban region that could drive growth in north Telangana.

Infrastructure development plan's
The idea is to connect the two cities physically by completing and expanding Outer Ring Roads (ORRs) around both Warangal and Karimnagar, as a first step. This obviously fortifies the road connectivity between the cities.

The Chief Minister proposed to include strategic facilities such as a large integrated dump yard between the cities, which would have a waste-to-energy power generation plant to efficiently manage municipal waste and produce electricity.

The solid waste generated in the two cities and their urban agglomeration areas would indeed be sufficient to generate ample electricity.

Why the idea ?
While the focus of development plans has always been lay centred around Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy explained his intent of ensuring a balanced regional development too.

North Telangana has, for long, been longing for a greater infrastructure and investment impetus which can create thousands of jobs for the youth in the State.

By twinning Warangal and Karimnagar together, the government proposes to break the stereotypical uneven growth, concentrated in and around Hyderabad.
Revanth Reddy mooted this idea - not in the closed door meetings with his ministers and officials - at a public meeting during the “Praja Palana – Pragati Baata” campaign in the run-up for municipal elections.

Development Agenda
Along with this idea, Revanth Reddy laid emphasis on the ongoing and future projects including the ORR linkage, completion of Mamunur airport in Warangal, investments in skill development centres, and also educational infrastructure.
He pitched the twin-city concept tying it to election campaigning and urged the electorate to support the ruling Congress in municipal polls so that these plans could bear fruit.

However, Revanth Reddy’s idea is not to merge Warangal and Karimnagar into a single administrative city, but it’s about integrating their infrastructure, growth planning, and economic expansion so they act as complementary urban hubs — a “twin cities” corridor aimed at decentralising Telangana’s development beyond Hyderabad.