Hyderabad's developmental journey over the past 25 years is a story of choices. Some of these choices were implemented to create a discipline of strategic thinking and strategic practice. Unfortunately some choices led to major strategic misses and have led to developmental disparities. Seldom does one come across a city with so much disparity in development within a city, as is the case currently in Hyderabad. A lot of effort has gone into transforming Hyderabad into a global city but staying there would require a complete change in mindset in the future.

• The economic development plan for the city, at one stage seemed a two pronged approach with IT on the western side of the city and biotech / medical research on the eastern side of the city. The plan seemed good with the eastern side poised to benefit from the Pharma background of Hyderabad. The western side was to solely focus on then new fad of information technology. At least on paper this plan looked good with creation of 2 growth engines on 2 sides for the city's future.
• However the approach taken for both these engines was different. On the western side the government decided to have an active involvement by roping in L&T to develop Cyber Towers and later Gateway and Pearl. Simultaneously more investors / developers like K. Raheja and Vanenburg IT Park (which later was acquired by Ascendas) where roped in to develop modern IT buildings. Government also allotted land to a lot of IT firms to develop campuses in Hitec City. More importantly the government machinery was at the forefront of marketing and supporting the development of Hitec city project.
• Fortunately the information technology choice turned out to be the correct and led to the massive growth we witness today in Madhapur, Kondapur, Nanakramguda, Financial District, Gachibowli etc. These developments have all elements of an integrated plan with jobs, residential, institutional, retail, hospitals, hotels, schools etc. all making the western side a completely self-sufficient economic cycle that it is today.
• On the eastern side, support was comparatively passive with 2 projects envisaged with private sector support. The first one was ICICI knowledge park (now known as IKP) to provide incubation support and SP Biotech park (now known as MN Park) to develop the incubated ideas into a manufacturing / research campus. Unlike the western side, the integrated part of the development was nonexistent from day one on the eastern side. Possibly it was presumed that the Hyderabad's Pharma business success will rub off on this area. This side development kept happening on its own sputtering pace and trying to get an integrated look and feel. Even today majority of the employees would not be staying in the Genome Valley area as all other elements of social life are mostly missing.
• Growth in land prices is an indicator of how the 2 different approaches have performed. The price in Hitec city would be at least 35-40 times more than some of the quoted numbers for land within the biotech parks. These kind of approaches have left one side over developed and the all other sides feeling neglected.
• What we have achieved in the past 25 years is one sided development possibly at the cost of neglecting the other sides of the city. Ideally the development of a city should be done in trying to make the economic cycle self-sufficient for each side. Not doing this leads to lopsided development and an unsavoury situation wherein lakhs of people travel to the western side and back daily for jobs.
• Future of Hyderabad depends on addressing these developmental disparities. Efforts to develop IT on the eastern side of Uppal / Pocharam have shown limited results. Further efforts to develop Shamshabad as an IT destination have shown disappointing results. The government has come up with the GRID policy to encourage more commercial / IT development in the North / Eastern sides of the city. To address this disparity it would require more than just policy intervention.
• The government would at some stage have to help in incubating IT projects on the eastern side of the city along the metro corridor. This could be done on the Uppal / Nagole side and L.B. Nagar side. Companies could now consider a work-near-home model but unfortunately their is nil availability of non-sez IT buildings this side. Policy and financial support both are required to cover this current disparity. The current economic slump could make the task of developing IT projects by the private sector a stillborn exercise.
• The Nagpur highway towards the northern side of the city has become a warehousing hub with 80-85% of this business concentrated here. Grade A warehousing is a major missing element in Hyderabad's offering due high land prices which render such projects financially unviable. The government has to step up and provide support to cover this missing element. Lack of Grade-A warehousing projects has already cost the city badly. This area has all other elements of the economic cycle already in place, only skilled jobs opportunities need to be planned better.
• The Karimnagar highway will continue to strive in the biotech segment working as a green zone. In terms of the economic cycle this highway is an exact opposite of the Nagpur Highway. This side has lot of jobs created but it lacks good quality residential stock, schools & colleges, malls, hospitals, etc. This is an element which would need government support going forward.
• The Warangal highway has areas like Uppal / Pocharam which could develop as an IT destination as detailed earlier. Some large IT firms operate from these areas and more need to be attracted here. It would greatly help if the Uppal junction is seamlessly connected to the Outer Ring Road (ORR) for smooth access to the airport. This area has residential, schools, retail / mall, hospitals etc already developed. It has limited number of jobs and little push would go a long way in making this side economically self-sufficient.
• The Vijaywada highway should be seen as a unique opportunity to make an industrial corridor spanning 3 states. An industrial corridor connecting Vijaywada - Hyderabad - Bangalore will go a long way in developing the underdeveloped areas along this stretch. The L.B. Nagar area needs to be also planned to become an IT hub. This area has residential, schools, retail / mall, hospitals etc already developed. It has limited number of jobs and focussed approach could help make this side an economic magnet.
• The Sagar Highway currently has become the hub for the aerospace industry plus has one of the largest campuses of TCS. Their is a lot of effort being put in by the central and state government to push the defence industry into a 'make-in-India' mode. This side of town will benefit quite a lot from this push. Close proximity to RCI and DRDO ensures that all defence related projects would come along this highway and help the development here. This side has the economic cycle more or less complete for the time being and a little more focus would help get this part to the next stage of development.
• The Srisalam Highway would eventually host the Pharma City project and that should help this part of the city attract a lot of investment and traction. This is a much required project to cement the city's Pharma industry leadership. As per reports this project is now close to the allotment stage sometime later this year
• The Bangalore highway - Shamshabad stretch seems poised to develop as a Grade A warehousing hub with ESR and KRaheja groups firming up development plans in and around the airport. The airport continues to have potential to attract a lot more investment in the future but possibly needs a new line of thinking and support.
• The south-western belt between Bangalore Highway and Vikarabad Highway, along the ORR, is a green zone with both Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar offering a lot of potential to develop these areas for tourism and entertainment purposes.
• The Old Mumbai Highway will continue to develop as the IT hub and this might spread towards the Mumbai Highway and areas along the ORR in this side of the city.
• The city now seems to be developing self sufficient zones on almost all its highways and with more government support this would turn into reality over the next decade or so. All the highways are already connected with the ORR now and would be connected with the regional ring road in future. This would also help in making smaller satellite self-sufficient towns across all the highways and hopefully would take the pressure of just developing the core city or western side of the city to justify economic means.
• Going forward metro connectivity along all highways would ensure smooth transit which would further help the development of the self sufficient zones along these highways.
• One segment always missing in Hyderabad is the industrial and manufacturing segment. This is one aspect in which we lag behind cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. Some major policy initiatives and marketing efforts are required to attract global companies to set up manufacturing facilities in and around Hyderabad. This is the time where we are expecting some companies to move their factories to India and hopefully Hyderabad can attract a sizeable chunk with its locational advantage of being almost in the centre of the country.
• A more effective implementation of RERA coupled with the recent changes being made by the government should ensure a proper real estate development along most corridors. TSbPASS now becoming a reality is a step in the right direction.

We now have the unique opportunity of making Hyderabad the hub for multiple industries and this aspect needs to be further strengthened with policy initiatives and financial support wherever required. A little push and prodding will make Hyderabad to be the next global magnet.

This article was printed by Economic Times for their special Hyderabad edition ET@25.