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MALLS TO HIT HYDERABAD EXHIBITION PLACE
EXHIBITION AT CROSS ROADS
By M H Ahsan
HYDERABAD: One Of The Last Lung Spaces In The City May Fall To Mall Culture. The Exhibition Grounds at Nampally is under threat: It’s the menace of malls, which has become the scourge of this city, that has cast its shadow on it too. Come 2009, and ‘Numaish’ — the popular annual industrial exhibition — may end up being staged at a huge mall at the Exhibition Grounds!.
And more ‘grand’ plans are in the offing. Apart from the mall, the 24-acre Exhibition Grounds would have three convention centres, two marriage halls to seat 5,000 and underground parking to accommodate 1,000 vehicles. By the end of 2009, one of the last lung spaces in the city would turn into another jigsaw piece in the concrete jungle.
For decades, the ‘Numaish Masnuaat-e-Mulki’ or the All-India Industrial Exhibition organised by the Exhibition Society, has been staged here. But the mall plans may sound the death knell of an event happening since the Nizam era.
It was in 1938 that the first exhibition, with just 100 stalls, was held at Public Gardens to showcase local products. Over the years, its popularity spread far and wide. In the latest edition (68th), 2,500 stalls would be set up with participation from several countries, including Pakistan.
“We are preparing layouts to construct six-storied complexes and malls, three convention centres and two marriage halls. An underground parking facility will also be constructed,” Society’s honorary secretary Nanak Singh told ‘TOI’.
The work might begin as early as March.
And for the first time, security is the buzzword at the annual event which draws lakhs. In the backdrop of the recent terrorist attacks, there is unprecedented security at the exhibition which is opened by governor N D Tiwari on January 1. It proposed to conclude on February 15.
“Over 120 security personnel, six dog squads, 26 surveillance cameras, 24 door frame metal detectors and 29 hand-held detectors would ensure safety of people,” Nanak Singh said at a briefing here on Sunday.
Home minister and Exhibition Society chief K Jana Reddy said, “The Society hopes to raise Rs 10 crore this year, but we are eyeing Rs 50 crore.”
The amount raised would be spent on 18 educational institutions run by the Society, which was started by the Osmania Graduates’ Association in 1932. The Exhibition Grounds was given to the Society on a lease till 2052, the home minister revealed.
But with the plans to build a mall in full swing, the land and the ‘Numaish’ on it now face the threat of being consigned to history.
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