HYDERABAD: Minister for Municipal Administration K. Ranga Rao has said that Hyderabad will soon be declared as a mega city and the Government will develop it into a model city by providing adequate infrastructure like roads, power, drinking water, sewerage, sanitation as well as needs of urban poor.

At the same time, the Government also wants to provide livelihood means to people of the rural areas in order to control migration, he said. The Minister was addressing participants of the first workshop on `Research for the sustainable development of the mega cities of tomorrow' by Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) here on Monday.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has selected Hyderabad for the project titled `Shakti' (Sustainable holistic approach and know how tailored to India), over a period of 11 years in four phases.

Issues to be identified

A 16-member delegation from 10 different institutes led by the European Institute for Energy Research (EIER) will identify issues to assess the current and future needs of the city. Mr. Rao pointed out that the face of urban India had drastically changed in recent times and with economic liberalisation, cities had emerged as engines of economic growth.

Not only did cities contribute to 50 per cent of the gross domestic product but a majority of the Government revenue was also generated from them. "But we had to pay a price for this growth with environmental degradation, strain on urban infrastructure, haphazard growth of cities and increasing poverty levels," he said.

Hyderabad too was witnessing tremendous growth and a perspective plan was imperative instead of resorting to fire-fighting jobs whenever the situation arises, said Mr. Rao. EIER's Project Coordinator Baerbel Schwaiger making a presentation said the researchers task was to devise solutions and strategies for sustainable development.

On successful evaluation of projects submitted and outlines refined for implementation the other three phases of three years each will follow. The Mayor, T. Krishna Reddy, and Standing Committee Chairman, D. Mohan, also spoke.

The MCH Commissioner, Sanjay Jaju, HUDA Special Officer S.P. Shorey and HMWSSB made presentations on sustainable development, long term planning and water needs respectively.

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