HMDA digs up iconic Trimulgherry football ground for SCB elevated corridor

Veteran footballers in Secunderabad are concerned over construction of a compound wall on Trimulgherry football ground, a historic site producing Olympians and national players. The SCB handed land to HMDA for road widening, prompting fears of losing access.

Hyderabad: Veteran football players in Secunderabad Cantonment express concern at excavation works taken up to build a compound wall in the premises of an iconic football ground at Trimulgherry.

Officials of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) handed over a portion of the sprawling two-acre land of the football ground to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for the elevated corridor building from Gymkhana Grounds to Shamirpet ORR on State Highway-1 for road widening.

A compound wall is being constructed inside the football ground as part of the elevated corridor’s road widening, a senior SCB official said. Boulders were also dumped at the playground for the compound wall.

Veteran football players, who still play football on the ground daily, expressed worries that the compound wall may end up blocking access to the playground.

According to them, the Trimulgherry football ground produced Olympians/National & International Players. The Olympians included K P Dhanraj (1952), Peter Thangaraj (1956, 1960), T Balaram (1956, 1960), and D Kannan (1960). The international players included John Victor, Victor Amal Raj, while national players included A Jessu Raj, Francis, Mohan, Surender Kumar, Machinder, Raj Kumar, Eugin, Johnson, apart from several junior nationals and university players.

Interestingly, a letter written by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Mr Krishan, an MP from erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, dated June 16, 1981, states that the Trimulgherry football ground would continue to be available as a playfield for the local population.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) also stated in a letter addressed to Mr Krishna that it had no objection to the site being used by civilians as a football ground. The MoD letter stated that, as per the ‘General Land Records’ (GLR), the vacant land in sy no: 291 was earmarked as a football ground for civilians of Trimulgherry.

A few football players lamented that the Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, who recently played an exhibition match with Lionel Messi in Hyderabad, does not show any interest in protecting the only iconic football ground surviving in the Cantonment.