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On Saturday, June 28, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy reiterated his stand that the government will establish IT companies on the 400 acres of contested forest land in Kancha Gachibowli in Hyderabad. The land was at the centre of a major environmental movement a few months ago.
The Chief Minister said that the developed land will help create “around five lakh jobs”. Accusing opposition parties of obstructing development and job creation in Hyderabad, Chief Minister Revanth said that the government would fight in courts, bring the land back under government control, and establish major IT companies there.
The Kancha Gachibowli land overlaps with the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus in the city’s Financial District. The land is part of an important lung space of West Hyderabad and has considerable ecological significance.
In April 2025, when the Telangana government tried to clear the land for construction, protests led by students of UoH snowballed into a nationwide citizen movement for environmental justice.
The Supreme Court (SC) slammed the Telangana government for the deforestation it carried out, and ordered authorities to restore greenery. An SC-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) also recommended for Kancha Gachibowli to be restored to its original state. The CEC had also observed that the land had all characteristics of a forest.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was addressing a gathering on June 28 after inaugurating the PJR flyover in Gachibowli. Speaking about the need to learn lessons from problems faced in other big cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai while doing urban planning for Hyderabad, the Chief Minister referred to the Gachibowli land and said, “The development of the Financial District brought nearly 10 lakh jobs. Building Knowledge Park next to Durgam Cheruvu brought five lakh jobs. We thought if we develop the 400 acres next to Gachibowli stadium, we could bring another five lakh jobs.”
The Chief Minister said that the government will fight a legal battle in order to establish the IT companies. He also criticised the opposition for obstructing IT development. “We will not stop despite facing obstacles from the opposition and will appeal to people not to forgive those who stall the development in the state,” he said.
The Chief Minister added, “We wanted to bring in investments worth Rs 1 lakh crore. We went to the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore to attract Rs 2.25 lakh crore worth of investments and tried to start those institutions here.”
Chief Minister Revanth said that the setback was temporary. “In the guise of politics, people are opposing government programmes. Should we forgive them? There is daily litigation and mudslinging, obstructing the city’s development,” he alleged.