Race Course Pump House set for demolition for NH-44 elevated corridor

The Race Course Pump House in Secunderabad Cantonment is set to be demolished for the NH-44 elevated corridor project between Paradise Circle and Suchitra Junction. Authorities plan to reconstruct the 10 lakh-gallon facility on nearby defence land after approvals.

Hyderabad: A decades-old water storage pump house, the Race Course Pump House (RCPH), is set to be demolished as part of the elevated corridor in Sikh Village, Secunderabad Cantonment.

The demolition is planned to facilitate construction work for the corridor from Paradise Circle to Dairy Farm (Suchitra Junction) on National Highway-44, which requires the removal of structures coming in the way of the alignment. The demarcation of the affected portion of the water sump has been completed.

---

The pump house served the Defence establishments and quenched the thirst of hundreds of defence families. Lush greenery spread on the sprawling, approximately 2-acre pump house acted as a lung space.

The Race Course Pump House will be the second water storage source after a British-era Balamrai Pump House, which quenched the thirst of one lakh civilian population in Secunderabad Cantonment, to be razed to make way for an elevated corridor at Balamrai near Paradise Circle.

The pump-house with a 10 lakh-gallon capacity came to light in the recent SCB Board meeting. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) gave working permission to HMDA for the construction of an elevated corridor on NH-44 and for the reconstruction of the Race Course Pump House.

The pump house is to be reconstructed on defence land, and the local defence authority identified two sites, class ‘C’ (Cantonment) land at Sports and Cultural Ground and A1 Defence land at Sappers Line Quarters, in the vicinity of the existing pump house.

Sources of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board said the land of the Sports and Cultural is being preferred to build an underground water sump, as the land parcel at Sappers Line quarters is linked with certain critical issues. Here, apart from the underground water sump and pipeline network, the splitting pump house infrastructure will be constructed.

The resolution passed by the SCB at its Board meeting was forwarded to the five-member senior Defence officers committee comprising president of the Cantonment Board, Defence Estates Officer, Secunderabad, Chief Engineer, Military Engineering Service (MES), an expert in Town Planning and Landscaping deputed by E-in-C and Chief Executive Officer, Secunderabad Cantonment Board, for a final decision.

After the committee gave their final consent, the HMDA will take up construction works for the new pump house, said the sources.

Thus, a decades-old Race Course Pump House, which has been a significant landmark structure on the back side of Begumpet Airport, is set to vanish soon.