Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday, August 25, attributed the growth of Hyderabad’s HITEC City to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, describing him as the force behind making the city a world IT center.
Addressing the CREDAI Property Show in HITEX, Madhapur, Revanth Reddy averred that the credit for developing HITEC City should be given to Naidu, who was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in the 1990s and had conceptualised and developed the project.
“Some are recognised and some aren’t, but the credit for HITEC City should go to Chandrababu Naidu,” he added.
Focus on metro
The chief minister also used the forum to condemn the failure to enlarge Metro services in the past ten years, citing that poor planning had aggravated Hyderabad’s traffic congestion.
According to him, the Congress government has recast Metro lines to link LB Nagar, Nagole, Chandrayangutta, the Agricultural University and the international airport, stating that infrastructure will not be sacrificed for political gain.
Revanth Reddy brought to the Centre’s notice the state’s fiscal burden and averred that Telangana was also grappling with a critical debt crisis.
Appeals to centre for loans
He appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help the restructuring of Rs 2 lakh crore loans, pointing out that his government was already able to restructure Rs 26,000 crore at a lesser interest rate of 7.5 percent for 35 years.
Although belonging to opposite political sides, Revanth Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu have an uncommon relationship. Naidu, who taught many young politicians in Andhra politics a thing or two about governance, including Revanth, is credited with building the backbone of Hyderabad’s IT industry.
Revanth’s open admiration is a rare cross-party recognition of the lasting contribution Naidu’s policies have left on Hyderabad’s growth narrative.
