Hyderabad, Aug 24 (IANS): The Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection (HYDRA) took up demolition of the N-Convention Centre, owned by popular actor Nagarjuna on Saturday.
Personnel of the newly formed agency began demolition of the Convention Centre, located on 10 acres of land in the Madhapur area in Cyberabad, amid tight security by police.
The property has been under scrutiny for years following allegations that it was constructed in the Full Tank Level (FTL) area and buffer zone of the Thammidikunta Lake.
The N-Convention Centre had allegedly encroached upon 1.12 acres of the FTL area and an additional 2 acres within the buffer zone. According to officials, the FTL area of Thammidikunta Lake is approximately 29.24 acres.
Despite the allegations, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had taken any action against the Convention Centre.
There were allegations that the management of the Convention Centre used influence to bypass regulatory actions from the agencies concerned.
Minister for Roads and Buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on August 21 complained to HYDRA about the illegal construction of the N-Convention Centre. He also enclosed with his complaint the FTL map showing the encroachment and the Google Earth map.
The Congress government recently constituted HYDRA for Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR) for disaster management, asset protection and other functions.
This body has also been tasked with protecting government assets like parks, layout open spaces, playgrounds, lakes and nallas.
Headed by IPS officer A. V. Ranganath, HYDRA has been demolishing illegal structures in and around the city for the last couple of weeks to reclaim the encroached land of water bodies.
It demolished unauthorised constructions near Gandipet reservoir on the outskirts last week.
HYDRA personnel deployed bulldozers to pull down the structures at Khanapur in the Full Tank Level (FTL) of the reservoir across the Musi River in the Rangareddy district.
On August 10, HYDRA demolished illegal structures on heritage lake Bum-Rukn-Ud-Dowla in Shastripuram.
Recently, the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) revealed that the extent of lakes in Hyderabad reduced by 61 per cent between 1979 and 2024.